All I Wanted
by xLilim
Summary: AU: Kikushita Hatsue and Uzumaki Naruto always had that awkward thing going on since he humiliated her in front of their junior class over a misunderstanding, but things are different when they run into each other in an unlikely place under strange circumstances. They are drawn to each other and it seems everyone knows the reason it's so natural except for Hatsue. NarutoOC
1. The Beginning

**Disclaimer**: Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto; OCs, plot © xLilim

**xl note**: Short story requested by **Aries01xD**, so I hope you enjoy it. I wrote most of this in between chapters of my other series and I never expected it to be so long.

The initial idea was writing a very honest love story between two high school students and then this happened. This is very different from what I had planned where instead of depicting the honest love story, I tell you what happened ten years later. I think that's the only way I can describe this and do it justice. There are so many other things that go on that will make you question things, but that's the beauty of it all.

The story is going to be told in long chapters 10000+ divided into 3 sections. There are 3 chapters complete.

* * *

**All I Wanted** – The Beginning

_"One fine day when I woke up dead_  
_She was on your arm and she filled your head._  
_Oh darling, I believed that we were real_  
_You were the only thing that I could touch and feel._

_Oh please, please tell me that it's all a lie_  
_We were born to love like we were born to die_  
_And all my rivers and all my guns_  
_Have led me here, what have you done?"_

- **Kyla La Grange**, _"Woke Up Dead"_

* * *

**(** _Part I_ **)**

* * *

The lights were still flashing behind closed eyes, the music thumping to the erratic drum of her heart.

Images flashed in her head—a slideshow of pictures of events that happened ten years ago, but had only occurred last night. Strangers cluttered all around her, dressed for the club scene sporting glittering hats and other party favors in celebration of another year she spent on this earth. She stood in ridiculous dance poses, fully aware of the camera and the adrenaline pumping in her veins, in a dress with a metallic sheen and in a pair of heels she lost before the night was out.

She remembered laughing about it, saying she'd rather lose her $300 shoes than her necklace, a pendulous rose diamond held by a silver chain—she loved it, wore it everywhere even if the occasion was casual. It was a family heirloom, passed down from mother to daughter or in her case grandmother to granddaughter, and it was the last thing she owned that belonged to the now impoverished Kikushita family. She never thought of putting a price on the diamond because she was suffering in the current financial crisis and might be tempted to pawn it. Important as it was, she had school loans to pay off, rent to keep up on, and bills—lots and lots of unspeakable bills. She shaved off a good chunk off the loans when she pawned a painting her great-grandfather was given as a birthday present from one of his mistresses, which made selling it that much easier knowing it was part of the shameless treasures her family had procured. The necklace was different. It dated back several generations when the Kikushita were jewelers that eventually rose into political prominence.

Kikushita Hatsue roused from sleep—too many debts to pay spoiled her beauty rest. Yesterday's events were a fast-paced blur she tried piecing together. Her throat ached from all the shouting she did over the loud music and she remember a few choice words she must have said to her best friend, who she recalled dancing on tabletops in a micro mini skirt and half a shirt.

She was familiar with the hard, dirt-packed ground on her back and the smell of grass and flowers. She never made it home successfully after her drunken escapade. The last time she woke to a wide sky, blue as sunlit water, had been on the first night she moved into her one bedroom apartment and had the genius idea to celebrate her independence. She was a horrible drunk, and truthfully, she liked it better when she woke up curled under the kitchen table. It was better than the middle of the park.

Hatsue blinked wearily, wincing at her throbbing headache.

Clouds idled over her head, forming a dozen different shapes she tried deciphering as she gathered the strength to pick herself off the ground. She touched her neck, feeling the silver necklace and pulled the diamond pendant over her head, rose shining bright in the sun. She felt relieved to see it there; she would have died if it were stolen.

She heard the crunch of grass and jerked onto a seat to a full view of the graveyard where she lay. Her relief was steadily replaced by a disturbing feeling of shame. Her drunken self hadn't fallen so low until that morning—_waking up in a graveyard, who does that?_

Hatsue recognized the golden-haired man approaching a tombstone with a bouquet of orange flowers in his hands. He worked as a probation worker at a youth center, not the brightest bulb in the room but the most inspiring and a quick thinker.

Uzumaki Naruto always had a sort of charm about him since high school where even though nobody found him agreeable, mostly for the humorless jokes and terrible pranks, he would do something right on occasion. Like that time Inuzuka Kiba from Group B wrecked the lighting in the auditorium just as Haruno Sakura and the rest of her Theater nerds were about to perform a lame Shakespearean play during the big school festival and she threatened to turn Kiba inside out when Naruto swept in with a cooler alternative. He was set on getting the girl like the hero normally would at the end of the movie, but even though she gushed when she gave him thanks on behalf of the whole Theater Club, she turned him down before he finished confessing and everyone knew it was because she had been crushing on Uchiha Sasuke since freshman year.

Or maybe when the senior class split into touring groups around the mountainous area during the school trip and two of them were stranded in the wilderness with one ice cooler full of water and no food. It took three hours before everyone started to freak out and for Hatsue to start telling scary stories about mass murderers and terrifying animals lingering among the trees. And once it was dark and their remaining chaperone (the other tried finding the path they were on before the detour Maito Gai suggested on one of his youth spurs and put them in that awful situation) had decided it was time to sleep before the real panic set in.

All the girls slept in one tent together, terrified of what emerged from the woods, so Hatsue got to sleep in her own tent so unlike the rest of them, had a comfortable rest despite the hard ground. The morning after, a group of girls who thought it had been a splendid idea to skip breakfast before the school trip realized that they were down to their last bottle of water. That and raccoons ate the snacks they had collected together (gathered from people like Akimichi Chouji were smart enough to bring along, but was accused of hoarding once stomachs started to growl) expecting it would last them long enough before their more reliable chaperone returned with news. That had started an outburst of complaints that had Gai reeling and several disinterested students wishing they were anywhere else but there.

Nobody would have noticed Naruto was gone if Hyuga Hinata hadn't mentioned it.

Sakura was quick to assume he snuck after their chaperone, Hatake Kakashi, which, at the time, Hatsue didn't put it past him. A lot of people chimed in to agree with Sakura's assumption and by the time Naruto reemerged from the foliage in his bright orange shirt and fresh scratches, she insulted him into next week, stressing how dangerous the woods were (talking about goblins and demons and all the evil chipmunks in Hatsue's stories). By the time he recovered from the punch she awarded his stupidity, he told everyone that he found the camp. He went to find an apple tree they passed yesterday, having snuck away before Kakashi left to find the dirt path, and stumbled upon it.

The only chorus of thanks he received was a mumbled one from Hinata and a slap in the back by Gai for a job well done. Hatsue thought of showing some appreciation and they made eye contact for a whole minute in which she could barely mouth the word or raise her hand as if she were about to wave. They hadn't spoken since junior year, though they didn't have that sort of relationship from the start because she had a way to make things awkward fast and the fact that she came from a political family from the seventies created a gap in which many females decided she was probably snobby. She was, but she would have liked it if they asked first.

But she and Uzumaki Naruto had that awkward thing going on. He called her a snob in front of the whole school once, like literally took the microphone from her hands in the middle of their junior orientation and told the whole class she was a snob before accusing her of cheating her way to "Sakura-chan's" place, even though she worked just as hard as his precious "Sakura-chan." He had previously eavesdropped on a conversation between herself and Sakura where he perceived her attitude as "mean" and felt man enough to defend his school crush. Hatsue was devastated with the humiliation and Naruto apologized among receiving two weeks detention.

They never got over that awkward. Especially, when it came up in every reminiscing conversation their graduation class had about junior year. Believe it or not, a still of Naruto yanking the microphone from her hands and her look of surprise appeared in the yearbook, voted Best Memory (a category created for the sake of adding it in), and it was still a mystery who took the picture itself.

It still tormented her through nightmares.

Hatsue dusted the dirt off her dress and shook the blades of grass from her dissolving curls. She found her clutch on the grave across the one she woke up on, swept it off the ground and made sure her ID and credit card were there. She found both, half a gum, a condom with a note signed with a red kiss mark, thirty bucks and some change that could get her a bus, but her favorite matte lipstick was gone.

"That bitch stole my lipstick," she swore, shutting her clutch.

She wobbled past Naruto on blistered feet. He probably wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't said anything, but she didn't want to be rude. "Sup, Uzumaki."

"Kikushita?"

"Yep," she said without stopping or turning.

"Hey, where're your shoes?" he asked, chasing after her. "And why's an acorn in your hair?"

Hatsue was quick to tense when he appeared in her periphery. She batted his hand away when he reached to remove the acorn in her hair. "Hey buddy," she said warningly, sticking an index finger in his face. "The acorn stays. I don't want to make the squirrel that put it there angry."

He laughed—that crisp, careless laugh of his that could fill a whole room.

"Did you come visit your family?" she asked, facing him.

He grinned—a strange emotion flitted across his face. "Something like that."

She hated the idea of mystery and Uzumaki Naruto mixed together, but it was suddenly there. If she continued grilling him on the subject he would probably break out into tears or get cagey about it. She wanted to avoid both so she stayed quiet.

They split at the gate. She recognized the area once outside the graveyard, but it wasn't relieving that her apartment was five blocks away and she wasn't even in shoes. All the little rocks kept stabbing right in the sole of foot making her curse like a pirate until a car rolled up next to her, an old model that seated four with chipped red paint and signs of a fender-bender.

She glanced over. Uzumaki. "So we meet again?"

"Do you plan to walk all the way home without shoes?" he asked, driving as slowly as she walked. "You look crazy, Kikushita."

"I thought of stopping for a coffee in three blocks," she replied with a shrug.

"Want a ride?"

Hatsue stopped, so did Naruto's car. She turned fully.

Maybe she was reeling from yesterday's tequila shots or she had imagined that awkward thing for four years of high school because she wasn't feeling a bit out of place when she left the sidewalk to climb into the seat next to him.

"My treat," he said as he peeled away from the sidewalk and into the empty street.

"Why? I've got money."

"I don't want to be rude."

"Well, maybe I don't want to be rude either."

Naruto frowned.

"You don't even drink coffee," she sputtered. "I'm not sitting through your frowny-face when I know you don't drink coffee."

"Even I have to wake up in the morning, those kids don't watch themselves."

"Look at you, Mr. Responsible. When did this happen?"

"It's been ten years since high school, Kikushita. Even you've grown up, I'm sure."

"That explains why I used to own $300 shoes," she blurted because it hurt her like a dagger to the heart for losing sight of them in the first place. She obviously didn't care in the moment, but she did now.

"Used to?"

"Yeah, I lost them."

"How can you lose $300 shoes?" he cried, breaking hard at an intersection. Hatsue smacked into the dashboard. "Put your seatbelt on!"

She didn't even consider the car having any considering its battered state. She buckled herself in, rubbing her forehead. "You shouldn't be stopping so abruptly, that's how you get into fender-benders."

"You should wear your seatbelt!"

Hatsue pulled the mirror down and stared at the angry red bump on her forehead. The impact didn't hurt as much as it looked, nor did the pain remain. It evaporated quickly, a fleeting torment. She pressed her fingers too it and felt nothing but the swollen flesh.

"That looks bad," he commented, peering over during a red light. "Does it hurt?"

"Yeah," she lied. "It hurts a lot."

"Maybe we should skip the coffee and get you home for an ice pack."

"I'll live, but not without that coffee."

. .

Naruto pushed open the door for her. She entered with her bangs swept across her forehead, sporting Naruto's jacket over her shimmering party dress and a pair of sandals he asked her not to question him about when he found them in the trunk (giving her every reason to ask). Despite his efforts of giving her the look and feel of a normal morning person, she still stank of the strawberry daiquiris she ingested last night and nobody was discreet when it came to shooting her curious glances and murmuring about the many places she might have been.

They lived in a small town where everyone knew everyone, or at least knew your grandmother or one of your eight brothers or six sisters or seventeen cousins you never talked to, and a 1-hour train could get you into the bustling city life, which was where she spent most of her time if not her apartment.

She didn't have family in town, so she didn't have to worry about her grandmother or sisters finding out she entered the coffee shop stinking like strawberries and rum in a short party dress and a man in tow. It'd save her the awkward phone call from the parents asking if she needed them to move back into town to be her support system. It would end up being a useless conversation because they wouldn't care if she was, indeed, okay, they'd make the effort to move into the apartment next to hers, whether or not it was empty. As impoverished as the Kikushita family was, it still had its connections and both her parents had recently retired which meant they had too much time on their hands and not enough ideas with what to do with it. They had been in Cancun last time she spoke to them, promising her a handful of souvenirs, which her father took the time to explain in full detail. She had to rush him because she was late to an appointment and everyone was staring at her in the waiting room, much like they were now.

Hatsue ordered a small cup of coffee, black, and glimpsed at Naruto until he ordered a latte.

She raised an eyebrow at him, slapping the money down for the two while he was searching for exact change. "A latte?"

"I'm not the one nursing a hangover," he retorted, snatching her money and thrusting his toward the clerk.

"Ha-_hah_."

When he glared at her, she switched the money and returned his into his pants pocket. He complained. She didn't listen. The awkward thing had turned into this. Ten years made the difference, but she hadn't realized it had been so long. It was as if she had fallen asleep the day after graduation and woke up in the graveyard in her party dress and a faint recollection of the last decade.

She took her coffee as soon as it was ready and found a seat in the corner by the window.

Naruto soon joined her with his fancy drink and some not-so interesting topics to talk about while the morning lasted.

"You didn't go to the reunion last week," he mentioned. "Sakura-chan was looking for you everywhere."

"I didn't want to give everyone the pleasure of remembering junior year, call me what you want, but I haven't gotten over the humiliation and it's in print."

"I said I was sorry!"

"I don't think you meant it," she shot back.

"Well, I probably didn't then, but I do now," he admitted. "You had a terrible attitude."

"Are we here to reminisce? I thought we just came for coffee."

"Nobody's seen you since high school. It's like you went missing."

"Maybe that was the point," she murmured over the rim of her cup.

He leaned forward. "Why?"

She took a deep gulp of coffee. "Why what?"

"What was the point of leaving this place? You grew up here. Your whole family was here."

"Made no difference," she said, finishing her cup. "Now, I'm gonna ask for a refill. Keep your panties on while I go get it, yeah?"

"Yeah," he grumbled.

Hatsue got her refill and a muffin and returned to her seat. "I wanted to leave. There isn't a concrete reason for doing it. I just wanted to get out of my house and not take a train to one of the three universities out there," she explained with a shrug. "So I went abroad and couldn't get farther than I did. Those New Yorkers sure know how to party."

"Well, your English was better than the entire graduating class," he agreed. "I never understood a word you said during the reading and I practically failed, so I guess that's not saying much."

"I was taking extra classes for that," she admitted. "This wasn't random. I planned it all along with my parents' consent. I just never told anyone."

"You should've told a stranger or something," he suggested jokingly.

"I did." She nodded seriously. "On the train to the airport. He wasn't listening of course; he was staring at an attractive woman in a slutty dress. It was a great dress."

Naruto's eyes strayed to the top of her dress. She snapped her fingers, forcing his eyes back to her face.

"This dress makes them look great, but I don't want you looking at them."

"Then why wear it?" he demanded, a shameless red colored his cheeks. "They're wrapped like a present."

"That's the point." She looked at the clock on the wall. "What time do you need to be at work?"

Naruto followed her gaze to the clock. "In another half hour."

"So, do you normally work on Sundays?" she asked, leaning on her hand with a knowing smile on her hand.

. .

Naruto insisted on accompanying her to the front door of her apartment with an awkward stride and his hands wrist deep in his jeans. She missed their awkward thing—struggling to enunciate the simplest of words and avoiding direct eye contact since the junior year thing. She thought she didn't after the easy conversation they share at the coffee shop and imagined it couldn't get easier than that. She had relaxed in her seat, he openly stared at her breasts and she thought nothing of it (that could have been because it was a usual thing at work, but this was Naruto!). Naruto's reputation with girls' changing areas was the absolute worse. He had been thwarted so many times and had gotten twice the amount of consequences, but it never deterred him from trying it again the following year. She used to give him the benefit of the doubt until he gave her a reason to stop removing all her clothes at once when she changed for gym.

For not having had any sort of relationship with Naruto, she certainly had too many memories with him, most of the humiliating sort.

"You know, I was sure you hated me," Hatsue started, looking at him as she reached her door. "I mean if junior year said anything."

"I said I was sorry!" he cried, but settled down with a deep breath. "You were a snob, admit it. You hated everyone from the minute you stepped in through that gate and weren't afraid to say it."

"I was a snob and nobody wanted to talk to me because it was universal knowledge. I always wanted someone to ask to be my friend so I could say no."

"Forget it, you're terrible."

"I need a naïve friend that makes me look like a better person," she said absently, opening the door without inserting a key. She met his gaze. "Want to be that friend?"

"No thanks."

"Well, thanks for the ride," she said quickly. "I'll return your jacket as soon as I wash it."

"You don't need to—"

"Come back for it tomorrow." She shut the door and shimmied out of his jacket when she heard it open behind her. She froze, turning.

Naruto poked his head in, hooking his arm over the door to reach the lock. "Lock your door, stupid." He turned it and shut the door. "You'll get robbed!"

Hatsue stared at the door, dumbstruck. He just locked her door. _Nobody locks my door._

* * *

Hatsue opened the door with a toothbrush in her mouth and curlers in her hair. She let the door fall open for Naruto to enter as she rushed back into her apartment to answer the phone. She spat her toothbrush into the sink and took the phone from the receiver, pressing it to her ear.

"_We've been pushed an hour,_" whispered Yue, her best friend and coworker. "_You have to be here now. People are starting to show._"

"Almost done, babe," she said. "I'll call you when I'm off the train."

"You busy?" asked Naruto, peering about her apartment.

"_I just heard a voice!_"

"I'll call you when I get there!" She hung up the phone and turned to her visitor. "I have an appointment in the city. So what brings you to my humble abode?"

Naruto blinked. "You told me to come tomorrow."

"Did I say tomorrow? Is it tomorrow now?" she asked, cupping some sink water into her mouth to rinse the toothpaste. "Why did I invite you over again?"

"My jacket?" he offered.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to wash it. Wanna come back for it tomorrow?"

"You don't need to wash it," he stressed.

"But it smells like strawberries."

He gave her a strange look. "That's not a bad thing."

"It's a terrible thing. What if you get hungry and try to eat it. It's great leather, very expensive." She covered her mouth when she burped. "Sorry, I started early on the drinks. I wouldn't be caught dead in that short dress without a drink in me; it's cold out in the city and it gets colder at night."

She rushed past him and into her bedroom, remembering to shut the door as she tugged her robe off. She slipped into a dark dress that reached mid-thigh and pulled on a pair of heels. She rechecked her makeup in the mirror, touching up her lipstick and cleaning up a bit of smeared eyeliner. She smacked her lips together.

Hatsue met Naruto in her living room and took her coat from the couch. "Sorry about forgetting."

"Fine," he said, scribbling something on a piece of paper. He handed it to her. "Come here to drop it off."

Hatsue looked at the address scrawled on the sheet and the number underneath it and then met his steady gaze. "Your place?"

Naruto nodded, heading out the front door. He peered in her direction one last time and spoke, "I'll see you then."

. .

Yue was waiting outside the train station in nothing but a tight dress and cropped fur jacket shaking like a leaf. As soon as she spotted her huddled by the wall, Hatsue approached her feeling the winds chill her legs until they had numbed.

"What are you doing here?" snapped Hatsue. "You're supposed to be at the club already."

"Thank god you're here," breathed Yue, completely ignoring her and started toward the intersection, heels clicking noisily. "Asako's been blowing up my phone—" Just then, her phone started blaring in her coat pocket. Yue answered it amicably, murmuring, "Speak of the devil."

Hatsue grabbed Yue's arm when the light turned green and pulled her off the sidewalk.

"I got her! I got her already! So stop shouting at me!" Yue shouted, pulling her cellphone away from her ear. "We'll be there in ten minutes! Ten minutes! Yes, bitch, ten!"

Hatsue snickered as her friend hung up her phone and stuffed it in her cleavage, twisting the coat over her shivering body. "Are they there yet?"

"Yeah, been there for half an hour and the newbies are boring them half to death." Yue huffed, a cloud of smoke falling from between her lips. She pushed her blond bangs out of her face. "I gave them our number in case anything goes wrong." She shot her a toothy smile. "Think positive."

"Pit stop at the bar?" Hatsue suggested as they slinked past a line of wandering eyes. Her bracelets clanked noisily at her wrists. "My treat?"

Yue smiled, nudging her friend. "Why'd you think I said ten minutes?" she asked. "I'm not spending no time with the grandpas without at least five shots of vodka in me."

"Let's double that. They're so boring. I don't want to talk contracts with them sober."

The voluptuous blond squealed in delight and walked with a certain hop in her step. She went on to talk about the last night they had partied together at the club with all those shining lights and the music that filled her body out, thumping along with her heart. Hatsue revealed that she woke up in a graveyard and demanded she return her lipstick, reminding her that although it looked great on her, she wanted it back.

. .

Seated on neighboring bar stools, Hatsue ordered ten shots of vodka.

The attractive barman swept over the second Yue plopped down in her seat, known for having a not-so-secret crush on her since they had a one-night stand the blond called "a complete nightmare," and pushed a rectangular tray toward them with shot glasses lined side by side. Yue played on the idea of false hope, flirting endlessly with him, to get a reduction on all alcoholic beverages of their choice. If he gave them a pass on the check, she let him cop a feel of her boobs. She called it a valuable relationship without having to please him between the sheets, one that came with benefits, and Hatsue's job was not to judge.

Together they lifted the first of many more shots to come and clicked them together in cheers before guzzling down the alcohol, the burn running past their throats, quick to warm their shivering bodies.

Hatsue met Yue at a bar being heckled by an ex-boyfriend. She sicced the bouncer on the poor bastard and got him banned from the club. Instead of feeling gratitude for her actions, Yue was infuriated and dumped her cocktail all over Hatsue's favorite silk dress, which was never the same again. It wasn't until Yue's ex-boyfriend started stalking Hatsue and he nearly killed her that time he broke into her house in the middle of the night and Yue had him arrested did she find a reason to admit that she was stupid to date a man like him. They had been friends since then. Three years ago, they found jobs with Asako, their lady boss, and have since been inseparable.

"So, you were with a man today?" Yue teased.

"Remember that story I told you about junior year?" Hatsue asked, knowing no sarcastic comment or quick subject change could make the conversation avoidable. She didn't understand why she cared to keep bumping into Naruto a secret in the first place, so she felt a need to say it. She expertly omitted him from the graveyard story, not bothering to say that she wouldn't have gotten home without him giving her a ride home.

"The junior orientation speech?" she offered with a toothy grin. "The one that humiliated you in front of the whole school…with the bright orange t-shirt?"

"That's the one," she said, taking her fourth shot of vodka. "I actually saw him at the graveyard, he gave me a lift and offered to buy me coffee."

"Ooooh, so you _forgot _to mention him?" Yue toyed.

"Don't _ooooh_," Hatsue chastised. "He only offered because I was going there and he thought it was Monday."

"That doesn't explain why he was at your place _on_ Monday."

"I borrowed his jacket on Sunday, promised to have it washed on Monday. He came over for it, except I forgot about it and he gave me his address to drop it off when I did. Long story short."

"Normally, you say that before you tell the story."

"Oh well."

Hatsue took her fifth shot and ordered another round from the bartender who just got cuter and wouldn't give her the time of day. Regardless, she and Yue didn't have each other's leftovers, they had an agreement and they were the sort of women with an attraction to opposite types of men. They only agreed certain men were attractive, like the barman, but it made no difference because they would never date him.

"Did you pee on his jacket or something?" asked Yue, drawing her attention back to the subject.

"I puked on it after he dropped me off. I sent it to the dry cleaners."

"You are so date-worthy, never a dull moment," she drawled, a sarcastic look on her face.

"Like you're any better, whore."

After a passing silence, the two fell into a fit of laughter.

* * *

**(** _Part II _**)**

* * *

The moment was almost fleeting and for a second, Hatsue felt lifted. Music rocked the ground beneath her, filled her body with a tingling she couldn't shake. The lights were as bright as she last remembered them; they were shining down on her curled hair drawing the highlights from within the darker strands.

It felt surreal. The ghostly touch of her dance partner, a younger male with cropped black hair and mesmerizing eyes with a hard body, the heat of his proximity that made it feel as though he had enveloped her in his strong arms but hadn't moved an inch since she dragged him to the center of the floor. She had a growing urge to touch him, pull him closer, grind against him as the music turned into a sleazy beat but she also needed to sit.

She wanted to drink something. Her throat was dry. She was running out of air. She could feel her blood pumping through her veins and a haze fall over her eyes as if the ambience was all smoke and mirrors.

Oh god. She was suffocating.

But she kept moving, breathing harder as if the air supply were thinning. She tried to take what was slowly deteriorating.

Hatsue searched the crowd and saw every expression lit with pleasure and joy. She spotted Yue whispering into the ear of an older man whose hand was up her short skirt. She wanted to shout something distracting, but found it difficult to think with a clouded mind.

She felt one hand on the back of her neck and the room went black.

* * *

Hatsue touched the necklace around her neck and brought the pale diamond to eyelevel to make sure it was still there. She sold everything of value she ever owned back then, save the shoes—she couldn't part with the shoes—because her family situation demanded it. No amount of part-time jobs could accumulate the amount of money needed to sustain a six-people household between a mother that could barely keep a job and a father whose pay was unworthy of his degree, but the economy was terrible. It was as if nobody was hiring people with actual degrees. It was the convenient stores, the boutiques and bookstores that were hiring and she tried them all until she realized her pricey clothes and technology could go for a good amount of money. She knew the diamond would sell for millions, but she didn't want to think about that. Family heirloom and all.

Still, it amazed her to find it around her neck when she woke up in strange places. In this case, the graveyard again, post-dawn so the barely visible light cast a haze around the tall graves. She felt a chill strum down her spine and knew that she needed to get out as soon as possible. She did just that after collecting her shoes.

She walked several blocks to get to the coffee shop and ordered a charged cup of coffee to knock the hangover out of her. She idled by the entrance gauging the distance between this shop and the dry cleaners where she had to pick up Naruto's jacket. It wouldn't be a far walk, but it would be uncomfortable in her dress. Regardless, it wouldn't hurt to walk the alcohol off.

. .

She checked the contents of her purse thoroughly before entering the dry cleaners. She had enough money to pay for the cleaning and many extra bills. By the staggering amount of money inside her clutch, she was right to assume she had made a great profit for yesterday's appointment and was thankful she had enough to pay her exorbitant rent with enough money to send to her sisters. They were staying with one of her aunts in the next town over where people were less gossipy and less inclined to talk about how Kikushita Hatsue woke up in a graveyard twice in one week because unlike the townspeople here, they knew how to mind their own business.

Seeing as she had the money, Hatsue hailed a cab to take her to Naruto's address and arrived to a wealthy-looking apartment building although she expected he didn't get paid enough for the job he had considering he was probably one of the few that got a salary as the town was overrun with volunteer probation officers.

Why did the thought of him being paid for a job everyone else did for free make him seem snobbier? Hatsue shrugged. That almost sounded like a rhetorical question. Why is the sky blue? Why are you still holding a grudge against him ten years after he called you a snob? _Oh, that's right. I have no life._

Hatsue entered the lobby bringing all the awkward in the universe at her back as she stared wide-eyed at the sparkling, high-class interior full of classier inhabitants enjoying non-awkward conversation while picking up their mail and walking their groomed Pomeranians out of the building. When people started to notice she tried to pretend she was invisible as she approached the resident list by the elevator and skimmed down it for Naruto's name, but then they started to whisper about the grass stains on her clothes and the lipstick on her cheek and the coffee stain down her front. She didn't mean to spill the coffee on herself, but some idiot on the street bumped into her as she was about to finish it. The grass stains would have to go on ignored by memory because she never asked her inebriated self to sleep in a graveyard. She had an explanation for everything they whispered about her, down to the fact that she might just be a hooker.

She wasn't a hooker. They at least looked classy in the morning whereas she just realized she wasn't wearing any underwear and her dress kept ridding up her ass. She tugged it down, sure one older gentleman drinking coffee with his teenage granddaughter saw the under curve of her ass because he was giving her his version of a come hither look and she wasn't interested.

At the sight of Naruto's surname stickered over the rectangular plaque for apartment 52, she felt overwhelmed with relief and pressed the elevator button. She stood there impatiently, trying to comb the unruly hair into the shallow curls that remained.

The metal doors swished open, a couple stepped. The man planted a kiss on his girlfriend's reddened cheek and took her by the hand, leading out of the elevator when they both stopped abruptly at the sight of her. She stared at them, slowly backing into the elevator when their faces clicked in her memory. Inuzuka Kiba and Hyuga Hinata together? There was no stranger couple in the world.

"Kikushita?" called Inuzuka Kiba hesitantly. Besides him, Hyuga Hinata looked at her frightened.

Hatsue opened her mouth to say something interesting when the elevator doors swished shut and the awkward greeting died in her throat. She already felt the junior orientation story coming into the light as soon as they confirmed that she was indeed Kikushita Hatsue. Now, she just wanted to pretend she was a hooker/stripper named Kandi and she was paying the rich guy at the penthouse a home visit.

Once the elevator reached Naruto's floor, she stepped out cautiously, expecting more of their old high school classmates to appear out of thin air and recognize her. The corridor was long with soft walls and flooring that made her heels click noisily. She walked past several apartment doors before coming across the solid black entrance to apartment 52, the numbers were a shiny silver color.

She reached up to knock when a high-pitch giggle reached her ears from within. She dropped her hand and pressed her ear to the door. Inside the voices were muffled, but she recognized Naruto's deeper tone from the girlish one and it sounded like they were having fun or maybe they were busy. It was probably best if she left and came back another day. She didn't want to interrupt him if he was with his girlfriend and it was his day off. Who was she to get in between two lovers in the morning?

Hatsue pounded on the door as if her life depended on getting it open before a masked psychopath cleaved her with a butcher knife.

"I'm coming already!" snapped Naruto. "You can stop knocking!"

But she couldn't. She was knocking like he owed her an explanation for bringing a strange girl into his house and her heart was hammering away to the rhythm, making her nervous when the black door swung open to reveal him dressed in a t-shirt and shorts combo and an annoyed look on his face.

Her hand was throbbing and she was breathing loudly, eyes looking past his shoulder to the surprisingly neat apartment and the half-dressed woman sitting on his bed. It was an open apartment, spacious with a full kitchen and living room area and bedroom in one large room, arranged in a way that would make any interior designer wet themselves.

"Sorry," she uttered quietly. She lifted the clean jacket to his view. "I came to leave this."

Naruto stepped out, shutting the door behind him. "You should have called," he said, sounding angry. "I wasn't expecting you to remember to drop off the jacket."

"I don't have a cellphone," she said. "This was short notice for me too. I came straight from work."

He shot her a look. "Or the cemetery."

"Don't say that, it makes me very aware that I have a stench," she said sarcastically.

Naruto stayed quiet for a long time before heading back into his apartment. "Wait here."

He shut the door behind him and she blew a raspberry as she wondered why she couldn't have stopped at a payphone or something to call him. It was the right thing to do when you were going over a friend's house, except they weren't friends. Still, she should have called. She saw the error of her ways. Now, she hoped he hurried outside so she could hand him the jacket and leave as quickly as she came.

The door opened, but instead of Naruto, the girl that walked out, fully dressed, and gave her a scrutinizing onceover before disappearing down the hallway with her nose in the air.

Naruto pushed the door open completely. "Come in."

"You didn't have to kick your girlfriend out," she said. "I just came to drop this off."

"Kikushita, come in," he said forcefully.

He didn't confirm or deny that the bra and panties girl was his girlfriend. Maybe she was, but he didn't need to kick her out, especially after the way she looked at her. What if she thought he was blatantly cheating with a hooker? Would she have to explain to her that she wasn't the least bit attracted to her boyfriend? Okay, she was lying on that one.

Uzumaki Naruto had been shorter than she was in high school where she based her opinions on people these days and he was disturbingly annoying with a personal vendetta against her. At least that's what it felt like to her and she couldn't look past those qualities to look at him as a member of the opposite sex. He was just the noisy blond in the orange t-shirt at junior orientation—god, she was never going to let that one go—but he was different now, taller with a slim well-built physique and golden skin. The little pervert inside her mind wished that t-shirts were see-through so she could take a gander at the taut muscle beneath, but she had lost her voicing privileges when Hatsue went out with the charming man that became her stalker.

"No need to shout at me, I'm going."

She stepped in and he shut the door behind her. He walked towards the island in the kitchen and pulled out one of the stools. "Sit."

Hatsue settled into the chair without protest and stared wondrously at the white and maroon contrast of the kitchen.

Naruto placed a bowl of steaming ramen in front of her and a bottled water. "Eat."

"No thanks, I've just had coffee," she said politely.

"Just eat."

"I can't believe you're still eating ramen for breakfast, it's disgusting."

"Not if you're hungry and I can tell you are."

"And what gave you that idea? The lipstick on my cheek, the stain on my dress, or the—" Her stomach growled.

"That," he said, cracking his first smile that morning.

Hatsue sighed. "Fine. I'll eat your instant ramen but I'm not going to be happy about it."

She took a chopstick-full of the instant noodles feigning disinterest but enjoying every bite. She was very tempted to enter a donut shop on the way over but she wanted to get things over with before buying a dozen different frosty treats to take home. She still preferred the donuts to the ramen, but it wasn't terrible. Not as terrible as she wished it was to give her an excuse to refuse to eat.

Naruto pulled one of the stools and sat across her, watching and waiting as she ate in silence.

"So why the bottled water? Why not a can of soda?" she asked, glancing at the sweating bottle of water.

He stayed quiet for a while. "You look like the bottled water sort," he said. "And you need to hydrate after all the alcohol you drank. I can smell you from all the way over here."

"Straight tequila and vodka shots," she said with a proud grin. "Had them all night long. I couldn't be bothered with fruity mixed drinks. I had a mission."

"A mission? What kind of mission requires you to get shitfaced?"

"Only the good kind." She slurped up the last of the ramen and let the chopsticks clatter within the bowl. "Hey, I think I saw Inuzuka and Hyuga in the lobby together."

"Yeah, they live in the floor above me," he said quickly. "Did they see you?"

She thought of Kiba who looked as if he needed to say something and of Hinata who stared at her with her wide pale eyes as if she had seen a ghost.

"Would it matter if they did?" she asked swiftly.

"Nobody said that." He frowned.

"They did." She twisted the cap off the bottled water and took a tentative sip. "In fact, I think your whole building thinks I'm a hooker." He made a face. "Don't worry about that. I get hooker a lot."

Naruto exhaled, taking the bowl from her and setting it into the sink across the island. "What _do_ you do?"

"What do you think I do?" she challenged.

"Escort? You dress classy enough," he said flippantly. "The late nights. Can't think of anything else."

"I like the idea of a classy hooker," she said with a laugh. "I'm not though. I'm a promoter, nightclubs mostly, but I've done other events. I started wearing the pantsuit at first to try looking professional but nobody took me seriously so I started dressing so I could enjoy my own nights. I even started inviting people I knew to work my nights, I pay handsomely these days."

"I never would have expected promoter," he admitted.

"No one ever does. That's the beauty of the job." She drank half her bottled water before twisting the cap back on. "It's ideal, but I really need a new boss. I've been promoting for the same woman for three years and she's starting to get annoying."

"Why don't you quit?"

"Because she, as much as I, can't afford to lose my nights there. I make a great profit and it'll take months for me to get a new brand going for another nightclub." She leaned over the cold surface. "I don't have the luxury when I've got two sisters in university, and let me tell you, medical school is expensive."

"Medical school? Really?"

"Yep, medical school. The second oldest, she's an ambitious one, but it's worth it. She's worth every penny I spend on paying her tuition. The other one, she's spends most of her money hiring attractive tutors."

"Why didn't you ever mention you had sisters?" he asked.

"Because they were young and in private school."

"You were in private school, right? Why didn't you stay?"

"Why? Ehh, I wanted to go to a school that was walking distance from my grandmother's house. I used to wake up too early and was at that train station as soon as the trains started running when I was in private school."

He blew a whistle. "Every day?"

"Every day."

"That doesn't sound fun at all."

She shook her head, suddenly very aware of her dress' itchy fabric and the unmistakable stench of dirt, grass, and other unknowns. She shrunk in her seat and he noticed.

"Something wrong?"

"Mind if I have a go at your shower? I'm suddenly very aware of my graveyard dirt fragrance."

"Yeah, sure, go ahead," he said easily, then pointed to a door across his king sized bed. "It's through there. There should be clean towels on the shelf. I'll give you something to wear."

"Can I use your phone? I have a friend that lives near…she can bring me clothes. I don't want to do the jacket thing again."

He chuckled, inclining his head in defeat. "It's behind you," he said, watching her twist over the stool to take the phone. "I'm going to the store across the street, do you want anything?"

She didn't know what the store across the street was, but instead of asking, she declined the offer. She didn't need a reason to stay longer than she already had.

Naruto stepped out of the kitchen and back to the bedroom portion of his apartment to scour his dresser for a different shirt.

Hatsue dialed Yue's cell and waited impatiently for her to answer, the ring droning endlessly, eyes wandering to Naruto's naked back. As he slid his arms through a black t-shirt, she tilted her head admirably observing the subtle flexing of muscles of his back.

She waved a hand over her face, blowing cool air in her direction when Yue's voice chattered her near trance seconds before he turned around, tugging the dark fabric over a drool-worthy abdomen.

"I'm hanging up now!" shouted Yue.

"No, don't!" she snapped. "It's me. It's Hatsue."

"Oh hey, did you get home all right? You didn't look that great. It was your birthday all over again."

"No, yeah, I'm fine, but listen," she started, peering at Naruto as he waved at her on his way out the door. "I need you to bring me a change of clothes, something comfortable. I'll give you the address."

"Did you shack up with that guy last night?" asked Yue, unabashedly eager. "He was cute!"

"I didn't. I'll explain this over lunch or something."

"Oh, I can't do lunch today, I have to go visit my grandparents. They're disrupting the peace. My mom doesn't want to go, so I gotta settle this."

"Ah, you're busy?"

She heard a shuffling sound on Yue's end.

"Nope, just looking for some comfortable clothes. I never knew I had so many hot shorts. You gotta convince me to toss some of these, they're horrendous."

"Anything will do, just not a dress."

"Okay, tell me the address now, I've got a pen."

Hatsue pulled out the slip of paper and started giving her the numbers, down to the apartment number.

"Okay, I'll be there in a jiff," Yue said before they hung up.

Hatsue took another gulp of water before sauntering towards the bathroom. She pushed open the door and peered inside. It had the same monochrome look as the kitchen with its maroon countertops and sleek white walls. The room was larger than she suspected, with a small shower stall in the corner, all glass walls and shiny knobs. There was a sharp turn that led into a rectangular bathtub, where there were two sets of shelves stacked with black towels.

She touched a whole row of them. They were soft and smelled clean when she brought one to her nose.

Hatsue entered the shower as soon as the water was the right temperature. She let the water unfurl the curls in her hair and dug her fingers across her scalp, allowing herself to think of a reason as to why she woke in the graveyard for a second time that week. She couldn't think of anything reasonable. None that made sense at least.

She hurried at the sound of the door opening and closing. She didn't think she would have taken so long and now she felt odd about having done so. She washed the shampoo out of her hair and stood under the flood of water one last time. She shut off the shower, took the towel and dried herself before wrapping it around her body.

Hatsue picked up her dirty clothes, pulling them inside out and folding them. She exited the bathroom quietly, looking across the apartment to the kitchen where Naruto was filing through some mail.

She turned away, her eye catching a slip of something sticking out of a nightstand. She walked to it, tugging it free.

It was a photograph, dated three years back. She turned it over and blinked. She almost couldn't believe her eyes. She stared at it long and hard, her mind going blank.

"Are you sure you don't want something to change into?"

Hatsue turned slowly, holding the picture face up in his direction. "I don't remember this," she said quietly. "Why do you have a picture of us?"

Instantly, his expression changed, drained of the previous emotion it had present to something completely different, something strange, something without description.

She looked at the photo once more. They were standing close together under a string of shining lanterns wearing smiles. His arm was wrapped around her shoulders and hers was looped around his waist. They looked oddly comfortable in each other's arms.

She tried remembering a time, three years ago, in which she ever went out with Naruto to a place with shining lanterns. As far as she knew, she had never once been out anywhere with Naruto, so her mind kept drawing a blank. The more she thought about it, the more a dull throbbing started in her head.

"We ran into each other," he said suddenly.

"And we decided to snap a picture? I don't remember this," she said again. "Why don't I remember this?"

Naruto's eyebrows drew together. "Because you were so shitfaced you wouldn't." He reached over, snatching the picture from her hands a tad harshly. She made a face. "Don't act like that's a revelation."

Hatsue stood perfectly still and insulted, watching him tuck the picture back in the drawer where it had been sticking out. This wasn't the first time he insulted her (well, it was the first time he had done it without an audience) and it wouldn't be at all shocking if she got so shitfaced three years ago and bumped into Naruto eager to take a random photo. What she had no explanation for was why he kept it inside his nightstand and as much a right she had to probe a reason out of him, she didn't want to know.

She did the next best thing and proceeded to pretend that it had gone right over her head. She did a lazy shrug, holding her towel in place when it felt loose.

"I probably was shitfaced," she said simply, sauntering across the apartment to find a seat. "Mind if I sit on your couch while I wait?"

Naruto looked confused. "No, go ahead," he said quietly, striding past her.

He reentered the kitchen with a deep frown and a creased forehead and started sifting through his mail again.

A giant wall of propagating awkward had erupted between them in the quiet. It was getting chilly and she was feeling it in all the wrong places.

The last thing she wanted to do was bring up the photograph, but the thing was sticking out of the drawer and his girlfriend looked at her with a killer look. All she knew was that if that woman had lasers for eyes, they would have shot at Hatsue upon sight. That look was a woman staking her territory, an almost demeaning gaze that racked her disheveled self as though she were unworthy of several underlying implications or perhaps, she was merely looking down on her because Naruto would never look at her that way.

But Naruto wasn't so devastatingly attractive that could make women around the world lose their panties. He was handsome in a strangely endearing way. He tried hard, went out of his way, slightly imposing but perfect for a woman that needed love—he would give that and much more, at least, that's what she imagined. He practically worshiped Sakura in high school. There was nothing he wouldn't have done for her. He said stupid things, but really, if some guy was willing to insult an innocent in front of the whole school to defend your honor wouldn't you say he was worth a second glance? Yeah. Sakura didn't think so.

The disturbingly shallow part of her brain pointed out his nicely sculpted physique. She couldn't forget that. How stupid was she? He looked good. Shallow Hatsue knew how to spot attractive men and Naruto was on her radar.

Of course, so was the ever-spreading wall of awkward driving her into antisocialism.

Hatsue twisted around, climbing onto the couch to face him. "I think your girlfriend saw the picture. Easy to misunderstand if she doesn't know the details, eh?"

Naruto lifted his eyes. "I don't have a girlfriend. She wasn't my girlfriend."

"Why'd you let me use your shower like that?" she asked, swallowing her initial shock.

"You needed it."

"At least we agree on the stench," she said in a jokingly sarcastic manner.

"Yeah, graveyard isn't that great a fragrance," he answered in a similar tone. He cracked an apologetic smile that sucked all his half of the awkward back from where it emerged.

She leaned into the couch, folding her arms over the back. "It's times like these that I appreciate how strong male body wash is," she said with a nod. "I always hated the smell because it gave me allergies, but it really got the stench off."

He laughed.

"You know, even if she's not your girlfriend, I'm sorry for pooping your party," she continued. "It's a problem. I went to a comedy club with my friends once and while everyone was laughing on the spot, I was giggling like an idiot before the comedians ever got to finish the joke. I was eventually escorted out. It was sad."

This time, he laughed harder. "Pooping your party?"

"I bet that sounded weird out loud," she said with a grin. "It looks better in writing."

He sank into his seat behind the counter, shaking his head. Once he settled down, he smoothed a letter over the surface. "You should have considered attending the reunion."

"Would you believe me if I said my invitation was late?" she asked curiously.

"No."

"You better believe it, 'cause it happened. I might have considered it, but it came on the following day."

Naruto leaned forward on his elbows. "Don't you think that's strange?"

"When I'm waking up in graveyards? No. It sounds normal, like something I need to take up with the post office."

"Did you?"

"Don't have the time. Too busy sleeping."

There was knocking.

Hatsue pushed herself off the couch before Naruto left his stool. "I'll get it."

She opened the door to a grinning Yue holding a cardboard bag with clothes.

"You filthy liar, you did go home with cute club guy," she accused, thrusting the bag into her hands. "Where is he? In the bathroom? Waiting for you to join him? Whore—oh..."

Naruto waved at Yue with a friendly smile. He was not cute club guy and she looked appalled for having word-vomited all over the place.

This pleased Hatsue. She gestured to him. "This is Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto, this is Tanaka Yue."

He reached over to shake her hand. She reciprocated the gesture slowly.

"Please tell me you brought your car and have enough time to drop me off," Hatsue bombarded her, clutching the bag to her chest.

"Yeah, it's on the way. Go get dressed."

"Well, come in. Wait for me."

Yue stepped in as Hatsue started toward the privacy of the bathroom when she noticed her best friend and Naruto exchange a surreptitious glance that made her heart clench uneasily. She ignored it.

Hatsue dressed quickly in a pair of comfortable yoga pants, tank top, and a gray shirt that hung off her shoulders and cut off mid-drift. She tugged on Yue's slip-on shoes that were a size too big and grated the back of her ankle with every step she took.

When she reemerged Naruto and Yue fell silent over a conversation Hatsue never knew was going on. She sauntered to the couch to stuff her dirty clothes in the bag and met with Yue, ready to leave.

Naruto walked them to the door. Hatsue went through the motions, thanking him for the shower and breakfast.

"It was nice meeting you," Yue said pleasantly, then looked at her. "I never would have imagined I'd get to meet the perpetrator of your junior orientation disaster."

"I said I was sorry," he said quickly. "That really needs to die off already."

"I couldn't agree more," Hatsue grumbled.

"It won't. That yearbook picture was priceless." Yue laughed all the way past the threshold. "You tell that sort of thing to your grandchildren and it lives forever."

"We're leaving now!" Hatsue took her friend by the arm, facing Naruto one last time. "Thank you for everything."

"No problem."

Hatsue opened her mouth once they were waiting for the elevator. "What was the look you gave each other?" she asked, feeling stupid for asking.

Yue grinned. "He's a lot better looking than you described."

"Do you plan to hit on him?"

"Is that okay?" She arched an eyebrow as if she required her permission to do anything.

The metal doors swung open after a soft ding. She stepped in shortly after Yue, hitting the lobby button, wondering if she was okay with her hitting on Naruto. Hatsue never considered that would ever be a problem, so did it matter?

It did.

"No," she said abruptly, over the soft elevator music. "It's not okay."

Yue lifted her hands in a sign of peace. "Chill, Hatsue, take dibs," she answered. "You saw him first. That's the rule."

* * *

**( **_Part III _**)**

* * *

The memory drifted into her mind in the dead of night. Hatsue spent hours struggling to sleep, the still image of herself and Naruto in such proximity reemerging from the darkness behind closed eyes. He offered a shallow explanation, going as far as blaming alcohol to justify her lack of recognition.

Confusion had been the first emotion she experienced. The picture evidenced a blatant meeting between the two of them, one that had stirred strange feelings into a cluster. And then, he had practically ripped it from her hands as if she had offended him in some way.

It was all too strange, but bits and pieces were rushing back into her head with every passing minute until the events begun clearing.

She had been surrounded by family. It was near Christmas time and her grandmother decided to host a party in competition with her neighbors across the street. She had decided that her entire family combined had many more friends than her rivals, but she didn't count on Hatsue only bringing Yue and her best friend's boyfriend at the time. She had spent the entire evening trying to explain that she didn't make any friends in high school and that none of her friends from university were crazy enough to fly to Japan for one party. Airfare was expensive, but her grandmother was not pleased by what she considered an excuse. She even went as far as saying she had enough retirement money to fly them all over if Hatsue had had the sense to ask.

In the end the turnout had not been as terrible as her grandmother made it seem, she had sisters that didn't know the meaning of the word snarky and had a heap of friends to show for it. This, of course, failed to stop her grandmother from pointing out how she should be more sociable because it could help her find a husband, which at twenty-five meant she was in desperate need of one.

By the end of the night, she had been in a mood.

Then, as she idled in her bedroom after Yue and her boyfriend left to argue at home undoing the pins holding her hair in place, she remembered receiving a call from Naruto. It was a short exchange, but her mood disappeared and he was happy when he invited her to some mysterious place she felt she knew better than she recalled.

Hatsue couldn't think of it then, there were pieces missing from the puzzle she assembled.

But she had gone to that mysterious place with the string of lanterns, rushing all the way feeling as though her heart was about to burst. When she saw him, relief seeped through every limb in her body, relaxing her tense muscles before her memory gave out on the first of several blurred events she struggled to recall.

She did remember asking a stranger to snap a picture under the lanterns. It made no sense why he had the picture instead of her. It was her camera.

Hatsue shook the thoughts from her head and reached for the phone on her nightstand. She dialed the number Naruto had given her, knowing he wouldn't answer. She wanted to leave a message at least, tell him she remembered the picture (well, part of it) and that she shouldn't have forgotten about it. She also felt a need to apologize, though she didn't do anything wrong, except snoop.

"Hello?" he answered groggily. "Who is it?"

"Kikushita." She jolted onto a seat, wide eyed. He wasn't supposed to answer. "Sorry about calling you late."

"No, no, it's fine," he said quickly. "Did something happen? Are you okay?"

_Why does he sound worried? _"On that day, with the picture, did we do more things together?" she asked, pausing briefly. "Why don't I remember any of them?"

Deep down she knew the answer. Her heart clenched like a fist.

Naruto chuckled. "Maybe they weren't worth remembering," he said jokingly, but his tone was sad.

She lowered her gaze to the sheets clutched in her hand. The sound of his voice made her heart sink. "You should tell me about them."

"Maybe."

The line stayed silent, but he wasn't sleeping.

She listened to it for what felt like a long time until her heart returned to a rhythmic beat.

"Goodnight," he called softly, as if on cue.

"Goodnight."

Hatsue sunk into her mattress after hanging up and closed her eyes. Sleep found her willing and took her instantly.

* * *

"I drove all the way to my grandparents' farm because they wanted to set me up with my ex-boyfriend," complained Yue, shoving a cracker into her mouth. "He's the new doctor in town and apparently has the hots for me."

"I wish grandparents found better use of their time than finding all their direct descendants dates," Hatsue remarked, drinking a deep gulp of soda. "When gran calls, she just wants to talk about some handsome new man she thought would be perfect for me. She's terrified that I'll get to thirty unwed,_ god forbid_."

"Tell me about it, I'm getting tired of it. They're really starting to get creative and one day they're going to tell me one of them is having a heart attack and I won't believe them and someone will die and I'll be guilty. I just want them to stop it with the setups."

"It won't be funny until someone dies."

Yue slapped her arm. "Don't say that! That's not funny at all! I love them."

"Okay, okay, knock on wood," Hatsue said, tapping her fingers to the wooden surface of their table. "That was in poor taste. Sorry. It's just these old folk are driving me crazy."

"Well you _are_ almost thirty."

"Cut me some slack, I just turned twenty-eight. I still feel twenty-seven. It doesn't matter."

"Truthfully, I'd like to be married before thirty."

"You say that because you're only twenty-three, that gives you seven years to find the man of your dreams," Hatsue commented. "You have an unfair advantage in our one-sided quest for marriage before thirty."

"What's so terrible about setting an ideal age for marriage?"

Hatsue sighed. It was a ridiculous thing, especially because they were single without prospective boyfriends coming their way. "Let's say you do meet the man of your dreams sometime between today and the next seven years. You go on several dates, spend months together—do you think that's enough time to know this man of your dreams is the one you want to spend the rest of your life with?"

"Sometimes a couple months is all it takes," Yue said dreamily. "Wouldn't it be okay to just know? To know deep down?"

"You're spending forever with this person. Until you die. That man is going to be the last man in your bed. You will see no other."

"He'll have to be amazing," she admitted, nodding.

"Passion dies."

"There's always divorce~"

"But you're in love with him."

Yue frowned, completely torn.

"There are ways to keep passion going on strong—being compatible, being spontaneous, communicating, making an effort, be romantic, make time for each other, fall in love again," Hatsue went on. "What if you could have known that man of your dreams wouldn't want to go the extra mile for you if you had waited a couple years more even though it meant you'd be over thirty?"

"I don't think I'll look this good at thirty," Yue argued, gesturing down her body.

Hatsue shrugged. "It's not worth taking the plunge if it isn't permanent."

Yue took a bite of her sandwich. "I didn't think you were such a romantic."

"That's not being romantic, it's being smart."

Her friend quieted for nearly four minutes. "Are you interested in Uzumaki Naruto?"

Hatsue stole fries off her friend's plate and stuffed them all in her mouth, earning a suspicious look. "My sister texted me this morning, she's coming next week," she said, changing the subject. "I have a club night, can you take over?"

"Yeah, my Tuesday is free." Yue nodded. "Are you going out with your sister?"

"All of them. Aya has a day off school on Tuesday and Saiko gets off work in the afternoon. It's the only time we can get together long enough to do something."

"Is Tomo going straight to your aunt's?"

"She said she wanted to stay with me."

"A bit cramped in a one-bedroom apartment, no?"

"I've got a sofa bed. She's staying in my room."

The restaurant door opened and closed, the room filled with a new set of voices that strum a cord of familiarity. Hatsue unconsciously tuned out of her conversation with Yue, facing the entrance from their booth to see both Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino chattering away.

Ino noticed her first and pointed her out to Sakura. Both looked in her direction, turning away immediately when she acknowledged them. They said nothing, though she expected that. The horrified look on Sakura's face and Ino's shock made her uncomfortable enough to look over her shoulder. There was nothing but a solid wall behind her. She glanced at Yue, who was staring dreamily at the waiter stepping out of the kitchen with a tray of food.

She leaned over to Yue. "I don't think he likes you.'

Yue startled out of her trance, dropping the last of her sandwich on the table. "Hatsue!"

She laughed, eating the rest of her food and excusing herself to the bathroom while Yue asked for the check.

The restroom was on the other side of the restaurant. Ino and Sakura were seated in the booth next to the entrance to the passage leading into the bathrooms.

As soon as she crossed the threshold, she heard Sakura say something that sounded strange. "Do you think Naruto knows they let her out?"

"I don't see how he wouldn't," Ino replied. "He's been acting really weird since we had our school reunion."

"Yeah, but I figured he just didn't want to be there."

Hatsue flattened her back against the wall. People should not talk so loud in a public place and she should have probably not been eavesdropping, but then she remembered she didn't care as much as she should.

"I talked to Mayu last night. She said a woman dropped by his apartment and that he asked her to leave."

_Maybe it was another woman_, she thought to herself.

"The woman?" Sakura asked, surprised.

"No. Mayu. He asked Mayu to leave and invited the woman in," Ino corrected.

Sakura said nothing for a while and then sighed deeply. "Why would they let her leave?"

"Maybe things will be different this time," Ino replied, hopeful. "Maybe we're not in danger anymore."

Yue suddenly appeared. "Hatsue!"

All conversation in Ino and Sakura's table ceased completely. The duo was suddenly aware of what they had said and what Hatsue might have heard.

Hatsue strode past her friend, unable to think past the conversation she eavesdropped.

"Kikushita, wait," Ino called out to her.

She took the nearest exit, listening to Yue shouting her name fade into the distance. She didn't want to look back because it defeated the purpose of storming out of a place if she felt hesitant, but the emotion was there and something told her that she needed to look back. So she did just as she crossed the street.

Yue berated Sakura and Ino, arms failing everywhere, in a way that made it seem as though the three were all previously acquainted without her ever noticing. It left a sour taste in her mouth because it was all too familiar a scene, as if she was living it for a second time that month.

Then it happened.

The impact.

It hit her hard, hurled her body in an arch across the air before it came crashing down and she was conscious of it all.

The car screeched to a halt. The driver stumbled out, shouting at the top of his lungs that he never saw her in the middle of the street.

Yue, Sakura, and Ino came rushing forward calling out to her, shouting orders amongst themselves.

All the while Hatsue knew her limbs lay twisted over the asphalt, though there was no pain. The impact only stung.

The voices overlapped.

"Call an ambulance!"

"I'm already calling!"

"Stop, stop! Don't call an ambulance, call _them_! _They _can fix her!"

"Someone make sure if she's still breathing!"

"Here, let me do it!"

"The ambulance is coming!"

"Idiot! You call _them_! She can't die again!"

"I'm calling Naruto!"

She wished she understood at least half of that. If she could distinguish the panicked voices, that would have been fine as well, but her mind steadily turned hazy since the impact. She could have appreciated that more than the sprawling blue sky, ever clear, ever endless.

Questions barreled into her head and the dull throbbing she felt yesterday came back stronger until the pain drove her to the precipice of unconsciousness where for the first time in days something made sense.

"He's coming, Hatsue," someone whispered. "He's coming for you."

It might have been Yue. It might have been a voice in her head. It could have been anyone.

Hatsue didn't care. _He _was coming. Whoever he was, it made her feel safe.

.

.

.

**( **_...t__o be continued..._ **)**


	2. The Facility

**xl note**: I want to point out the "Supernatural" tag in this story and say that everything that happened in this chapter is because of it. At least, you're getting some answers as to why everyone acting all weird with her being around and she might not be as crazy as she thinks. Any block of text in italics is the honest truth, you'll see what I mean.

I also want to add that I'm never guessing how long it'll take for a short series to end, so enjoy the ride.

My humblest thanks to: **unknow69**, **kotkas24**, **Aries01xD**, **StellarAbyss**, **littleauror**, **YamiKitsuneKami**, **Beira**, and **Fitz-Catsby **for reviewing the previous chapter. This one might not be as great, but I appreciate all of you for giving this a shot! Thank you for the favorites/alerts as well! :)

Enjoy.

* * *

**All I Wanted** – The Facility

_"I bit my tongue in the awkward conversation,_  
_I met you once and I'd fallen for your notions,_  
_Do you believe that there's treasure in the ocean?_

_I don't know why, I don't know why._

_Girl, you make me wanna feel_  
_The things I've never felt before."_

- **Angus & Julia Stone**, _"Lonely Hands"_

* * *

**( **_Part I_ **)**

* * *

_Kikushita Hatsue doubted there would be anything in the world that could end the despair that plagued her. She had already been dreading the opening ceremony enough without the addition of Uzumaki Naruto or the howl of laughter following his unwarranted accusations. She'd never understood the notion of being so embarrassed you could die until that moment._

_Right then and there, she'd wanted lightning to zap her out of her misery. Sadly, fate was as cruel a mistress as she was a bitch and the bitch let her leave the stage crying after she successfully hit Naruto where it hurt. She gave him a sliver of the humiliation that would haunt her for years and even though the action brought forth a strangely sadistic satisfaction, it only lasted an hour before she received the worst of the news._

_They had detention together._

_Detention she might have avoided if she had not decided to end the possibility of him reproducing._

_Detention she would endure with a proud smile on her face because she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of having won anything. Whatever war he started on that stage would end in detention, she attested to it._

_"Quit staring at me, I already apologized!" complained Naruto._

_God, she hated the sound of his stupid, grating voice. "Shut up. I can do whatever I want."_

_He took that as a challenge and fixed his determined blue stare with hers. "Fine!"_

_"Why are you staring at me?" she demanded, insides twisting in discomfort._

_"I can do whatever I want too."_

Touché.

_She refused to lose to him._

_The stare off went on in complete silence. They were occasionally treated to the shuffle of clumsy feet moving through the hallway, the voices of club students taking care of their duties, and the activity of the baseball team gathering for a friendly match._

_As their first of several detentions neared closing, Naruto did something she didn't expect. He made a face, sticking his tongue out and tugging his mouth wide open with both of his forefingers._

_The initial shock merely widened her eyes._

_He took her reaction as an invitation. Making one stupid face after the last until she finally gave in to the fit of laughter she'd struggled for many minutes to bite back._

_Hatsue lost herself in the hysterics, unable to compose herself long enough to redeem herself. He pulled his eyelids back and rolled his eyes while groaning her name in a dramatic voice._

_"Kiiiiiiiiiiiikuuuuuuuuuuuush hhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiitttttttttta!"_

_Her stomach cramped up, voice growing horse from the non-stop laughter. She cried mercy with tears in her eyes._

_Naruto laughed, leaning into his folded arms to rest his chin atop a forearm._

_Hatsue wiped the tears from her eyes and finally looked at him. His steady gaze reached hers, the smile on his lips lighting his eyes. A strange feeling washed over her, covered every inch of her insides, and her heart skipped a beat._

_Something in her head clicked._

_He arched an eyebrow. "Kikushita, were your eyes always so green?"_

_She couldn't speak._

* * *

Home used to be expansive. Too big for a family of four. There were too many rooms, too many corridors that mapped into a maze complete with Kikushita history, and so much stifling silence that could drown a person. Her time there was scarce. One day she lived indulging in the pleasantries of overabundance and the next she started experiencing the exact opposite. Selling the property won the Kikushita enough money to live a comfortable life when Hatsue and Tomo were the only daughters. Private school was affordable then, but her parents hadn't accounted for Aya and Saiko—appearances were important. Eventually, Hatsue did by sparing her parents the trouble of paying her tuition. That was the first memory she had of stepping into her actual hometown to live with her grandmother, having lived in its outskirts all her life where they were closer to the next town over yet their property settled in another's.

She had hated it. The gossipy, know-it-all town, and the fact that everyone knew everyone to some personal degree, whether by sheer coincidence or some humiliating story you wanted to run away from, maybe someone was talking ill things and another person overheard and spread it around to your parents. It was a perfectly boring town with an affinity for overly curious residents or bored housewives that deprived themselves of productive hobbies.

However, she didn't seem to hate it anymore.

When Kikushita Hatsue opened her eyes, the vaulted ceiling and the shade of night complimented by the scent of cinnamon reminded her of home. It brought warmth into her body that scared away the thoughts in her head. She had questions. More than she could process. There weren't enough excuses in her mind to justify waking in a strangely familiar room on a foreign bed, but she needed a proper reason to stay calm. The fact that it felt as though she had been there long enough to consider it a home was not enough.

She sat up, the springs in the bed creaked under the shift in her weight. She touched her arms, her legs, pressed a hand to her chest, to her neck. She made sure she could wiggle her toes. She clenched and unclenched her hands. She felt perfectly normal, despite an erratic heartbeat and a killer headache that was like driving a nail into her skull.

Hatsue realized her bed was one of three others once her eyes adjusted to the darkness. The opposite wall was covered in tall windows shielded by heavy drapes. The only door was on the other side of the room, up four steps and the leveled portion of the room where she counted two loveseats, a long couch and an armchair in a semi-circle around a sleek television hung from the wall.

It was then she noticed she wasn't alone in the room. A figure sat on the bed nearest to the steps, back to the headboard. She probably should have greeted the person, but she considered lying down to sleep off her confusion, at least until it morning. She could worry about the details later. Her body was perfectly intact and for some reason that was all that mattered.

"I told you to watch the road."

She startled, recognizing the mocking tone in that male voice. _Holy shit _was her initial thought, followed by her awareness of how dry her throat was when she finally uttered his name. "Uchiha Sasuke?" The shock lingered in her tone. She thought about being friendly. "Is that you? I haven't seen you since high school."

"Great. You're brain dead." He clicked his tongue, dropped into bed and twisted around so his back faced her.

She could take a sign when presented with one and Uchiha Sasuke wanted to ignore her, which was nothing different than what he had done in years of high school. It affected her the same way it had then—she shrugged it off. Except, a part of her was curious about the room and why they were in it together and she considered asking the question, but he was too busy ignoring her to care.

More importantly, Uchiha Sasuke had fallen off the face of the planet after graduation and nobody, not even their town of nosy nobodies knew where he had gone or if he had gone off to some far off university. The only talk that did happen was that the same thing occurred to his older brother, who everyone now thought dead given the circumstances surrounding Sasuke's living arrangements.

_God, I sure miss that graveyard._ Waking up there was more a question of how drunk she had been the previous night and not a blank page in her head.

* * *

Morning arrived in the form of two uniformed nurses pushing open the heavy curtains. The flood of sunlight slapped her across the face, stirring her out of the light sleep she accomplished last night after hours of answering a thousand questions in her mind with hopeful, impossible responses. Staying positive proved difficult in her current situation because although the gargantuan room looked foreign, it felt familiar—the smells, the feel of air, the way the sunlight tumbled into her bed, and even the swaying trees in the distance.

Hatsue rubbed the somnolence from her eyes, blinking wearily and squinting under the harsh rays.

"Breakfast is at 7, on the dot," one of the nurses announced.

She searched the walls for a clock. "Do we have a clock?"

"It's 6:15," the other nurse answered. "Please follow the schedule laid out for you." She stood closest to her bedside, gesturing to the nightstand on her right and the sheet of laminated paper sitting under a mug of something steaming. "We will return to escort you to the breakfast hall in 50 minutes."

The nurses walked up the steps hurriedly.

"Why don't we have a clock?" asked Hatsue after hearing the doors slam shut.

"We're not allowed to have clocks."

Uchiha Sasuke rose out of bed dressed in a plain white t-shirt and grey cotton pants looking as grumpy as she felt. He followed the aisle between the beds, walking past hers, and reached a door off to the corner she didn't notice last night. He left it wide open. From her vantage point she spotted white tiled floors complimented by white walls and the corner of the sink—a bathroom.

"What's the point of having schedules if we don't know what time it is?"

Hatsue reached to the laminated paper and read down the list.

_6:15am – Wake-Up Call_

_6:20am – Hygiene_

_6:25am – Shower_

_6:30am – Check-Up_

_7:00am – Breakfast_

Sasuke reemerged from the bathroom with a toothbrush in his hand. "Listen, stupid, keep to the schedule," he ordered. "You're already behind. Hurry up."

"Why do we only get a 5 minute shower?" she demanded. "I can't shower in 5 minutes!"

"You get a 30 minute bath in the evening. So stop complaining." Sasuke disappeared behind the door, the sound of the brush working his teeth sounding in the silence that followed.

Hatsue kicked the itchy white sheets off her body and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She wore the same grey cotton pants and white t-shirt combination Sasuke had, underneath it she was missing a bra and she had granny panties on. Whoever decided on the dress code either had no sense of fashion or an unnecessary sense of humor because it wouldn't have killed them to let her keep her undergarments.

The room walls were paneled at the bottom and decorated with plain peach colored wallpaper. The space between the four beds in the room seemed larger, as did the size of them. She thought she had slept in a twin-sized bed, but it was bigger than that, probably full-sized. The sheets were wide and she was given only two pillows.

She ignored the urge to explore and headed into the bathroom, which was larger than she expected. There was a row of four sinks aligned to the wall with a large rectangular mirror above them. Behind them stood a half wall separating them from the four adjacent shower stalls, before it a long bench, and a short corridor to a door that led into the toilet. She went there first before exploring the rest of the room.

The last stall in the row of showers was running with its curtain drawn shut.

Hatsue glanced at the bench in front of the half wall and the two sets of neatly folded clothes. One for her and another for Sasuke. She faced the sinks, finding hers next to Sasuke's, only because above it she found her name written on a silver plaque stuck to the wall. She washed her face and brushed her teeth in a rush trying hard to stay sane.

Behind the half wall she found a row of towels sitting on shelf. She took one into an empty stall and drew the curtain. She left it on the shelf leveled with the showerhead and threw her clothes out as she removed them. She tested the water. It was quick to warm and as she let it wash over her, she noticed all the essentials were sitting within her reach.

The shampoo smelled of vanilla and coconut, but the bar of soap was scentless. She wanted to complain about it when she heard the water shut off in the neighboring stall. She took it as a warning sign and went through washing her body haphazardly, barely able to get the foam out of her hair when she heard Sasuke on the other side of the half wall getting dressed.

Hatsue suspected there was still soap in her hair when she got out, but she didn't care. She was running behind schedule and that made her panicked. She towel dried her body and dressed as quickly as possible. She found deodorant at her sink and used it, though she hated its powdery smell, and rushed into the room, hair dripping. She left a mess inside, but didn't care to fix it.

Sasuke sat at the edge of his bed, feet on the ground. He regarded her with annoyance. "They'll get angry about the mess you left."

"Since when do you care about making people angry?" she blurted. She couldn't stop herself before it happened.

"You really are brain dead. How did you get back here?"

"Back?" she asked skeptically. "You mean I've been here before?"

It seemed that was the wrong question to ask because Sasuke looked downright livid, but not to the point that he wouldn't talk to her. He was willing to explain by the sudden change in his steeled black gaze.

"Where were you before you woke up?" he asked in as calm a tone as he could muster. "What is the last thing you remember doing?"

"Eating a sandwich, or else I think it was a sandwich," she answered easily, picturing the events in her mind's eye. "I went out to lunch with Yue, my friend, and we were talking about how our grandparents—you know, it was a stupid conversation. Then, Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura walked in, you know, from high school—"

"I know who they are," he snapped. "Did they say anything to you?"

"Not exactly, but I eavesdropped on their conversation on the way to the bathroom. They were talking about Uzumaki Naruto and his girlfriend or something weird like that." When she tried remembering the conversation completely, she met with black spots in her memory. "They were talking about something strange and it made me leave the restaurant. I just remember walking fast before turning around to see them all arguing about something. I never thought Yue knew them and if she did, I never noticed until then."

"You walked into the street without looking," he finished, sounding quite sure of his conclusion.

Hatsue narrowed her gaze. Everything beyond seeing the three women arguing like they knew each other was a chunk of darkness separating her from her gossipy hometown and this room. "How are you so sure?"

Sasuke shut his mouth when the doors opened, heralding the next step in their morning routine: _check-ups_. Two men in lab coats entered wearing tags with their names and pictures on them and bags carrying their medical tools.

The youngest of the two approached her with a friendly smile. She read the name on his tag, _Yakushi Kabuto_, and looked back up into his face confused about what the whole check-up ensued until it happened.

It turned out to be an ordinary physical that required little conversation except when the doctor asked her to do something. He promised to return tomorrow morning after packing his things with an eerie new smile that set off all sorts of alarms in her head.

Once the two doctors left, she relaxed.

"Daily check-ups?" she asked suspiciously.

"This was the first of three," he answered. "This is to make sure last night's medicine had no visible side effects."

"That sounds boring." Hatsue reclined on her bed, pulling a pillow under her head. She turned towards Sasuke. "What's the medicine for?"

Sasuke shrugged absently. "To keep us normal."

"Normal?"

Again, he rolled his shoulders in response.

Hatsue didn't press the subject. She looked into the ceiling and thought about wanting to see a familiar face, one whose name she didn't want to mention. His name floated around in her head, complete with the last conversation they shared and the wall of awkward that separated them after she found that picture of them together dated three years ago.

"Was I here three years ago?" she asked, hoisting her body onto her elbows.

"You were here up until a week ago."

That didn't sound right. She had a planner at home full of promoting nights dating back from the start of the year. It sounded impossible to have been in this room for who knows how long until last week where she clearly spent her days at home making plans and having fun. She even celebrated her birthday, but she also remembered everyone's reaction to her appearance. Even when she woke up in the graveyard and ran into Naruto, he sounded dubious when he uttered her name, as if he had not expected to see her. Inuzuka Kiba and Hyuga Hinata in the apartment building looking as though they had seen a ghost and what about Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura whispering cryptic things in their booth at the restaurant. The townspeople were the same, gossiping about her in a way she expected one would about someone that had been away for a long time. Everyone stared at her strangely, suspiciously, and while she was immune to it, now she realized it wasn't normal.

She talked to her parents two weeks ago, she remembered that, and they were talking about souvenirs from Cancun, but had she been in this room when it happened. There were no phones in sight. Perhaps, it was somewhere else.

She eyed the empty beds. "Do we have roommates?"

"Had," he corrected. "They checked out."

"Checked out? So is this like a crazy house?" she asked, determined for answers.

"No. It's a facility."

"How do we get out?"

"When we're done with the treatment."

"Oh, I get it," Hatsue announced. "We're like in rehab."

"It won't help to be a blind optimist," he shot back. "You won't check out a third time."

"I don't understand," she admitted, stomach twisting. "When did I check in? What sort of treatment are we supposed to finish?"

Sasuke turned to the door just as the nurses reentered, gesturing for them. She followed close behind Sasuke, stepping out into the cold corridor with a hammering heart. Nobody else walked the same wide corridor. The walls were made of sleek wood and cold marble tiles. There were several rooms in that same floor, but everything except their room was occupied, else there would have been other people walking to the breakfast hall.

The breakfast hall was located to the left at the end of the corridor, to the right was a staircase going up. The interior looked more like a cafeteria should. The entire floor was scattered with round tables, each with four chairs, and there was a kitchen in an adjacent room. It was visible through a wide window with a single squared opening in the corner where the nurses gestured them to stand like a pair of students getting ready to receive their portions for the day.

Hatsue watched a single woman arrange two trays of identical food, drawing them off the counter and onto the one in front of the closed little window. She walked across the kitchen to the fully stocked refrigerator and pulled out two bottled waters. She set one on each tray, regarded Hatsue with a smile, and pushed up the tiny window. She slid the first tray out.

Hatsue took it and walked to the nearest table. The nurses had taken a seat in a different table where they were prattling on quietly. She observed them and they knew she was looking.

"Don't look at them." Sasuke dropped his tray over the table, taking the chair next to her. "They're snitches."

"So are you going to tell me what's going on or are we going to keep brushing the subject? I'm brain dead, I get it, but seriously, I was on the street one moment and the next I woke up here."

"Not now," he murmured, leaning over. "Don't drink the water if the seal is broken. Don't touch the food unless it's packaged."

She stared at her tray dumbly. "That leaves the Jell-O and a bottle of water." She found some packaged crackers. "And some crackers. What do I do with the rest?"

"Move it around so it looks like you ate some of it." Sasuke busied himself doing that, tearing pieces off bread and making it seem like he was about to eat them whenever a nurse glanced over or cutting the fruit into smaller pieces he could mix together with the scrambled eggs.

Everything in her tray smelled delicious enough to make her mouth water, but she decided it was best to listen to Sasuke since he seemed so knowledgeable about the facility and her memory was having an episode.

"Explanation?"

"Drugs."

"So we get drugged in this facility as well?" she asked humorously. "It's practically a five-star hotel. We get free drugs."

"They're aphrodisiacs."

She stabbed open her Jell-O with her fork and dug in. "Sounds painful." She stuffed a spoonful of it in her mouth and let it melt on her tongue. She swallowed, turning to Sasuke slowly. "Wait. You said aphrodisiacs."

He nodded nonchalantly.

"Why are we the only people in the cafeteria?"

"Because we're the same."

"Same as in same family tree same? Or same as we're the same level of crazy and we're a danger to the other crazies?"

Sasuke's eyes flickered to hers. "What?"

"As in we're part of the same family tree," she tried, the other statement she made sounded self-explanatory.

"Try race."

She drew a circle between them that included the nurses seated two tables away. "That would be the rest of this room."

"Breakfast is only thirty minutes. You've wasted twenty asking stupid questions."

Hatsue took stuffed another spoonful of Jell-O into her mouth to stop herself from saying something insulting. She ate the rest of her pitiful breakfast in silence, thinking up more questions to ask and maybe get an answer as to why she didn't remember being in the facility before last night.

Before today, she and Sasuke had never spoken more than two words to each other since high school. He's had entire conversations with her in a mere hour. She didn't want to jump to conclusions and say it sounded like they were friends if she had, indeed, lived in the facility before, but at some point, she needed to in order to explain his friendliness towards her.

The little information she had of Uchiha Sasuke was that he graduated top of the class, but refused to give a speech and walked out in the middle of the ceremony. Every female in school had a crush on him, going as far as creating a fan club that was really a shrine to his existence. Sakura and Ino had a terrible high school friendship because they both liked him and neither one of them was woman enough to drop him, so that had been amusing to watch.

Naruto also came to mind. He spent all high school heckling Sasuke into random rivalry stunts to prove himself the better person…at anything really. It developed into some strange friendship no person on earth or god in heaven understood. They could be at each other's throats one minute and having a normal conversation the next. It was probably safe to say that Naruto was the only person Sasuke had lengthy exchanges with at school. Otherwise, he was either quiet or snarky, both, and most times haughty. If someone thought they were better than the rest of the students, more than she, it was Uchiha Sasuke. He came from old money as well and he had been slated to inherit all his family's assets since his older brother went missing, but in the end, it seemed he didn't. Why else would he be in the facility?

Hatsue drank the entire bottle of water at Sasuke's insistence before the nurses appeared to remove the trays from them. Neither one of them bothered to acknowledge the mess they made of the unpackaged portion of the food and simply returned the uneaten portions to the lady in the kitchen, who disposed of it.

Once more the nurses escorted them back to their room. This time, Hatsue heard the click of a lock. She tried turning the handle when their footsteps disappeared down the hall but it didn't budge.

She stepped down the short staircase and peered out the nearest window. Outside, lit by sunlight, were rows of swaying peach trees, manicured lawns that stretched far beyond her eyes reach, and a courtyard teeming with bulky uniformed men carrying firearms.

"Tough security, eh?" she asked. "Is the Prime Minister here or something?"

Sasuke pulled her away from the window. "Not too close."

Hatsue frowned and for the first time reached to touch her neck. It was gone. The rose diamond, Kikushita heirloom worth millions, and the realization left her winded for several minutes.

"Stroke?" asked Sasuke.

"My necklace is gone," she breathed, a minute away from hyperventilating.

"You'll get it back once you check out."

"No because they can take away my sexy underwear, they can leave me braless, but they cannot take away my necklace!" she announced, crossing a line never to be crossed. "Where do I check out?"

"You need permission to check out."

"Where do I find this permission?"

"Give up now. You won't be checking out again."

"Give up?" She sank into the nearest bed, his to be precise, and noticed someone had been in the room to fix it. Giving up on leaving sounded easy. It gave her a welcoming pull, but her neck felt naked without the slight weight of jewelry. "I can do that." She met his gaze. "Is this where you've been?"

"Yeah."

"Do they just get you in the middle of the street? Black van, shady kidnappers and all?"

"They knock on your door with permission to extricate you from your home," he explained, ignoring the cliché.

"Organized evil?"

Sasuke shrugged.

"Why don't I remember anything?"

"Before you check out, you leave with a few alterations."

"So, someone perused the contents of my brain?" she asked suspiciously, not sure she believed it all. At that point, her blind optimism needed something to believe in and if that something sounded like something out of bad novel, she would take it. "Took what they wanted, left what's convenient?"

Sasuke glowered. "You don't believe me."

"Not really," she admitted. "Maybe you've been here for too long, maybe they don't let you take enough sunshine—get the pale joke?—or maybe you're just crazy. I don't know. Following a schedule, being escorted to and from rooms, getting three check-ups in one day, aphrodisiacs in the food, permission to remove you from home—honestly, it sounds stupid."

Calling him crazy was probably the worst thing she could have done. "Yesterday afternoon, you were hit by a car. The impact wrecked your body, took you to the brink of death, and yet late last night, you were okay, perfectly healthy. There isn't a single scratch on you. Want me to explain that?"

"So this facility has advanced medical knowledge it's stashed away from the rest of society, who am I to question it? I'm alive." She refused all reason, plain and simple. She drew the line. Too much was too much. "Besides, I don't remember a car. I just remember crossing the street."

"Course you don't remember a car. The only way you check back into the facility is through death."

"Okay, now we're getting ridiculous," she said loudly. "I'm not dead."

"That's because you can't die."

"Don't be stupid, if I die, I'll stay dead."

Sasuke's hand shot to her neck, grip tightening around it.

Hatsue let out a strangled cry, hands shooting up to claw at his. Every protested died in her throat. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that he was determined to choke her to death, she saw enough determination in his coal eyes to find that confirmation. He might accomplish it. She kicked her feet, tried to push him away, but he merely forced her back into the mattress using his own body to weigh her down.

She dug her nails into his hand as he begun to squeeze her last breath and watched pain register in his expression as she drew blood from him.

She felt her eyes roll back and the room go black.

Life snuffed out of her.

* * *

**( **_Part II_ **)**

* * *

_"Maybe you should get more detention," Naruto suggested, leaning close enough to share his body heat._

_Hatsue ignored the knotting in her stomach and continued scribbling down formulas into her notebook for an upcoming exam. "Why would I do that?"_

_"Because you're not as snobby as I thought you were," he admitted with a wide grin. "You're pretty great, Kikushita."_

_She reached the end of her detention, which meant she could go back to participating in the Science Club, but Naruto still had another week to go. It meant he would spend the rest of his time alone and completely bored out of his mind, which was something he liked to avoid. She wanted her freedom a lot more than she wanted to spend time with Naruto._

_"We have class together," she reminded him._

_"Yeah, but you never want to talk to me during school."_

_"Letting you talk to me implies I like being talked to," she answered casually. "I don't want everyone else to use you as an excuse to humanize me. I like being a snob."_

_Naruto frowned childishly. "Really, Kikushita? I think you're worse than Sasuke."_

_She turned to him; the proximity between their faces reddened his cheeks. "Uzumaki, can you get out of my light?"_

_He settled back into his seat clumsily. "Sorry," he murmured, picking up his pencil and scanning his empty math worksheet. "Oi, Kikushita, help me out with these problems. I don't understand them at all."_

_Hatsue glimpsed at the sheet of paper and analyzed the group of problems he referred to, quick to think of explanations for each. She carefully went over each, deconstructing every step as best as she was able, but at the end he looked a tad more dismayed than he was at the start._

_"Uzumaki? Do you get it?"_

_He grinned. "Can you repeat that?"_

_He moved closer to the table, chair screeching noisily in the sudden silence, so when he leaned over their joint desks, his elbow lightly brushed her forearm. Her heart fluttered. He quickly turned to apologize, putting his hand over the area he was certain he hit._

_She froze._

_The heat from his body slipped into hers from the slight contact._

_Naruto jerked his hand away as if he had been electrocuted. _

_Every inch of her tingled with his warmth, it surged through her—breathing life into her. She wanted to run away, quickly, as far as her legs would carry her. She wanted to rush to the nearest bathroom and splash cold water on herself because she felt her skin was on fire._

_She jumped out of her seat and turned toward the door with a hammering heart._

_His hand caught her wrist. He was cold._

_"Kikushita," he called easily. "Where're you going?"_

_"Toilet."_

_She couldn't look at him._

* * *

Hatsue stared at the fading bruises on her neck in the bathroom mirror the following morning. She should have been angrier with Sasuke for literally chocking her to death, but she woke up fine, with a rush of oxygen into her lungs that startled her. She had taken her first breath in hours. She sensed the difference in her body—her nearly undetectable pulse as it slowly fell into its usual drum and the weightlessness of her body as she teetered toward the bathroom on awkward feet. There was clarity in her mind, signs of a headache, and a throbbing in her mouth.

She recalled the impact that brought her to the facility, how quickly it had happened and how easily her body had been hurled into the air to land in a broken heap over the asphalt. The pain should have been excruciating, but it had been absent, all she felt was something like a bee sting.

She rubbed the area wondrously feeling no discomfort.

"Someone called an ambulance," she said lowly.

"Paramedics would have pronounced you dead and you'd probably wake up in a morgue," Sasuke answered, seated on the bench with his arms crossed.

"Who are _they_? The owners of the facility or what?" she asked, remembering one of the three woman swarming her making a constant mention of them while she remained conscious.

"Most likely."

She gingerly traced the purplish outline his fingers left behind. "Will the bruises go away?"

"Once you adjust." Sasuke stood and approached her to show her his hands. Tiny crescents adorned the skin where she had stabbed her fingernails in mid-panic and long red streaks where she scratched the skin off to draw blood. The deep cuts came together without scabbing, but looked tender. "They'll be gone in a few minutes."

"How long was I out?"

"The rest of the day."

"So I can't die?"

"No, you die. You come back to life."

"So I'm practically immortal."

"And immune to pain."

Hatsue faced him. "And you're the same?"

"Yes."

"It bothers me that you chocked me to death to prove a point," she admitted, frowning deeply. "If that's how we're going to do things around here, I'll tell you now, we're not going to get along at all."

"Next time believe me and I won't have to kill you."

Sasuke stepped out of the bathroom. Hatsue followed him out after a final glance at the bruising. They had twenty minutes left between the second check-up of the day that consisted of blood tests, x-rays, and brain scans. He warned her that things would be particularly difficult for her because she had checked in for the fourth time in too short amount of time between her last check out.

"I don't remember leaving," she said, taking a seat in the armchair of the living area. "Do we get good TV here?"

"Only news channels," he answered evenly. "It hasn't been too long since you left."

"Did they do something to my head?"

"Rearranged things mostly, as you said, and implanted fabricated memories. It's what they do when you check out. Nobody needs to learn about facility's inner function and the ex-patient needs to believe they led a perfectly normal life."

"Will I remember?"

"Once you adjust."

"I checked-out three years ago, too."

"On temporary leave," he corrected. "That crazy grandmother of yours made use of her old connections to give you two days, but you ran off with Naruto."

Hatsue watched the screen as Sasuke switched from one channel to the next. The photograph she found sticking out of Naruto's drawer where they stood comfortably in each other's arms was dated three years back and he shouted at her when she asked him about it. He called her a drunk. The emotion that flashed in his eyes made her stomach sink, as though she had forgotten something important, something she shouldn't have, something she couldn't help but forget because of this strange facility.

Things added up. She was at her grandmother's house attending her party and Naruto did call. She met him. The elation that overpowered her the minute she saw him waiting on the other side of the street, she had never experienced it before. She ran to him, she remembered the cold wind rushing against her body. The night chilled her to the bone. The coat barely warmed her, but something else did.

She blinked skeptically, head throbbing. Arms wrapped around her that day and lips pressed against her skin. They tangled into one as desperate words fell from their mouths.

"I _tried _to run off with Uzumaki Naruto," she said slowly. "I think I was…happy."

Happiness slipped straight through her fingertips. One couldn't hold water in cupped hands no matter how hard they tried; she felt the same about happiness.

She couldn't have it because she couldn't hold it. The facility seemed to be the most probable reason.

"Is there a reason I shouldn't be near Uzumaki?"

"Yes."

"Why is that?"

"Two reasons."

She waited patiently for answers that didn't come. "Do you plan to elaborate?"

"One, he is human, and two, you belong here."

"Here where they run strange tests on us and try to drug us?" she questioned, a bit of demand in her tone. "Here where we are locked in a room all day and are only allowed out with someone escorting us, where we are the only ones in the entire floor? I want to be optimistic, but everyone outside treated me like some pariah, like I was a ghost, like I didn't belong with them. Ino and Sakura had a doomsday conversation over me, they think I pose some sort of danger to them when the only harm I've done is probably woken up in a graveyard. I appreciate that you're willing to help, especially after we ignored each other throughout high school, but the only thing that makes sense is that I want to get out. I want to go home and see my family. I want to talk about stupid things with Yue and promote nights at Asuka's club. I want to get drunk off my rocker and dance under flashing lights. I want to—"

"_I want to see Naruto_," he finished for her, meeting her gaze. "You said the same thing before you checked out."

Hatsue shrank further in her seat. The words appeared in her mind but she had no intention of speaking them because it made her heart ache for reasons she couldn't understand. A memory full of holes, where only glimpses of the past were available to her as though someone went through it all to edit it before releasing it to her, talked to her in rhymes.

"And if I wanted to see him…what would happen?"

"You just might be the death of him."

* * *

_Hatsue returned home in time for dinner, but upon entering, she realized it would only be herself and her mother._

_"Your father will be late from work. The girls decided to drop by your aunt's. They might stay overnight, so it'll be just you and me." The woman smiled brightly. She smiled like she had a secret and it unnerved her to see that she did. "I made all your favorites today. Should I serve dinner now? Or, do you want a bath first?"_

_A white envelope sat on the kitchen counter with a strange seal on it._

_"Did you hear about that cosplayer that killed some of his coworkers?" asked Hatsue._

_Her mother startled. "That sounds terrible. Was this recent?"_

_"No. It happened two months ago," she replied uneasily. "They say he was dressed like a demon. He glued horns to his scalp."_

_"Did he?"_

_"A fanatic they called him."_

_Her mother fidgeted. "I think I might have heard him mentioned in the news," she finally admitted. "Did something happen?"_

_"No. I just heard about it in school the other day during the blood drive. I was just curious if you ever heard anything about it." Hatsue set her school bag in a chair. "I think I want to eat first."_

_"Oh, before I forget, a boy called earlier."_

_"For which one of the girls?" she asked suspiciously. She wanted to put the blame on Tomo; she seemed popular with the opposite sex, though she didn't notice it. "Tomo?"_

_"No, it was for you," her mother answered, a playful smile on her lips. "An Uzumaki Naruto. Should I be worried?"_

_A chill ran through her at the mere mention of his name. Her body acted of its own accord when he came around. She didn't feel like herself lately, not since orientation. She thought she might have some semblance of normality since he seemed too preoccupied in trying not to fail the next exam to attempt at a conversation with her. She ignored him so many times she thought he finally got a clue because she didn't like what happened when he was around._

_"No," she said evenly. "You shouldn't."_

_"He sounded eager to talk to you. I think he wanted to invite you out."_

_"Oh."_

_She felt nothing._

* * *

Sasuke supplied fewer answers whenever she started to bombard him with questions, but she learned enough to assume she never took that trip abroad to New York and that most memories from after graduation were doctored. She lived a different person's life through her memories when she'd spent the last ten years with Uchiha Sasuke in the same room, under the same circumstances. The only difference between them was that her family had had enough connections to grant her temporary leave, all of which ended disastrously and put in danger at least one civilian.

As Sasuke said, she needed to adjust to remember. She did—to the crappy schedules, the unnecessary two hours of daily exercise, the indifferent nurses, the hulking brutes walking around the facility, the strange medication injected into her bloodstream, and the hours she spent locked in the room with Sasuke. She readjusted to familiar ground.

She found the hidden security cameras and made it a ritual to wave at them whenever she faced their direction. She discovered the treasures she stashed in a shoebox behind one of the wall panels, most of the contents composed of photographs and the Polaroid camera that took them. She found notes dated ten years ago, months before graduation, depicting numerous conversations she shared with Naruto during history. There was a collection of newspaper clippings too, ripped haphazardly, all about required blood tests around the world in search of "special" beings.

_'_…_are in possession of a dormant gene that enhances certain attributes, distinguishing them from humanity…'_

_'…They are not human and if left alone, they will overrun the world with destruction.'_

_'The first Facility has opened its doors to patients. Recent high school graduates, Uchiha Sasuke, 17, and Kikushita Hatsue, 18, are the first species with similar DNA structures. Scientists believe they are the unique among the rest, suspecting the others are mere mutations.'_

'…_Scientists confirm that the dormant gene awakens between ages of 16 thru 18. All high school students are required to have random blood tests until they reach the cut-off age. By law, parents must relinquish their rights to their children if they are in possession of the gene…'_

_'…__**Breakthrough!**__ Scientists believe to have found a cure…!'_

_'Kikushita Hatsue, 23, was released to her family this morning. She is said to be in the process of readjusting to society. The cure has worked!'_

Hatsue returned the newspaper clippings to the corner of her box, carefully tucking them under a tiny leather book. Reading through each, she came to a single conclusion when she lifted her eyes to Sasuke. "We're lab rats, aren't we?" she asked quietly, feeling a steady throbbing inside her mouth. Her teeth had been hurting for the past few days. "It's not a cure they're trying to find. They're trying to replicate our DNA to make it possible for others to become like us."

"We're not susceptible to poison, we're physically stronger, faster, smarter, and immortal," he said in a way that sounded like he was reading off his check list. "Instilling fear into society is the only way they can condone the experiments they put us through, saying it's for the good of the world and that they are trying to remove our power to make us human. The only thing they accomplished in a decade is suppressing our abilities. They can't make a drug out of what we are because it will kill them."

"Why did they send me back home?"

"As a beacon of hope. Civilization won't end catastrophically if a cure is possible and you had everyone fooled until you wound back in here."

"Why?"

"Naruto."

"Naruto, again?"

"You chose him. He's your problem."

"Chose him?"

"During mating season," he said coolly.

She sputtered. "Wait. Wait. Wait. We have a mating season? Okay, I'm shutting my brain off. That's crossing some line I didn't want to cross. I liked to think we were like superheroes, but superheroes don't have mating seasons so all the hope I had just got flushed down the toilet with whatever remained of my dignity."

Hatsue removed herself from the foot of her bed and instead of waving at the security camera on the way to the bathroom, she flashed it the bird. She heard Sasuke snort behind his book and call her an idiot. She slammed the door shut.

She ran the cold water at the sink and splashed her face with it until she felt satisfied.

A knock at the bathroom door disrupted her. Sasuke never knocked. He opened doors without prior announcement because this room was as much his as it was hers. They had been sheltered there together for nearly ten years together despite her previous check-outs.

She reached for the handle and pulled it open. Her nurse stood with a blank look on her face. "You have a visitor."

Hatsue glanced at Sasuke, who regarded her with a shrug. She didn't need his permission, so why look at him?

"Who is it?"

"Follow me."

The nurses seldom uttered one word to them unless it was to chastise them or it was necessary. Two days ago, his nurse shouted at her for purposely throwing her milk carton at the back of Sasuke's head because she asked the lady in the kitchen to spare some cooking wine if she didn't have any liquor and he called her a drunk. It seemed to be in their best interest to keep them from fighting, which she learned that Sasuke's nurse warned him about a possible separation if he put his hands on her again. At the time, it made her less angry at him because he had gotten in trouble, but it didn't make sense how they knew about it and that eventually led to her discovery of the security cameras.

Her own nurse handed her a pamphlet about alcoholism yesterday with a knowing smile and a snarky comment written in marker. The nurses didn't like them much and they didn't need a neon sign above their heads to confirm it.

Hatsue followed the nurse out of the room, down the corridor to the staircase leading to the floor below. They walked several tense minutes, listening to the scratchy sound of the nurse's footsteps and the slap of her bare feet on the cold floor resonating in the corridor.

The nurse opened a door at the end of the hallway for her and as soon as Hatsue spotted the back of her sister's dark head, her heart soared.

Tomo turned when the heavy door closed and hurriedly met her halfway for a bone-crushing embrace. Hatsue apologized as soon as her sister let out a squeak of complaint and cupped her face, feeling a strong urge to cry.

Tomo beat her to it, her wide hazel eyes were starting to water as her fingers found the tangles in Hatsue's hair. "God, you must hate it here," she uttered, hurt. "I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner. Mom and dad tried, so did grandma, Aya and Saika too, but you know the policy, no visits until after the first week."

Hatsue shook her head. She needed to seem strong, despite looking a mess in cotton clothes. She wiped the tears from her sister's eyes with the sleeve of her gray standard issue buttoned sweater. "It's fine. It's the same as always. Nothing hurts. And Sasuke's around. He's not much of a talker and he ignores me most of the time, but at least I'm not alone."

"That's great." Tomo gave her a watery smile and took her by the hand, leading her to a table where they sat opposite of each other. "I didn't think they would bring you back here, but Yamanaka-san said it couldn't be helped."

"What happened to the driver?" Hatsue asked, remembering the panicked older man who exited his car shouting all about not seeing her step into the street.

"It was a good thing Haruno-san called the ambulance because he nearly had a heart attack when you were confirmed dead," answered Tomo with a shaky voice. "He received no charges, the facility paid for the repairs on his car and his medical bill. I think it scared him more to know you were a _patient_." Her sister held her hands tightly, blinking up her teary eyes. "Are you adjusting okay?"

"Yeah. Except Sasuke just informed me that I have a mating season and I was in the middle of a mini-freak out in the bathroom—did you know they make us share a bathroom? We have absolutely no privacy! I've seen him in the flesh, Tomo. He changes right in front of me, it's like he doesn't care whether I see or not."

"…Do we have to talk about naked men, Hatsue?" she asked tentatively, cheeks burning in embarrassment. "Maybe he doesn't care."

"I care," Hatsue said strongly. "My female sensibilities care. It's scandalous. Anyway, did you know I have a mating season? I don't know what happens during it, well, except the obvious implications—the sex, you know."

"Yes, I know about it!" Tomo said with a squeak. She contained her voice. "The need for one goes away once you've _copulated _with someone opposite of you."

Hatsue leaned into the table on her elbows. She grinned. "You whispered copulated. Honey, you're almost twenty-six, do I have to talk to you about sex?"

"No," she sputtered. "No. It's fine."

"So this person opposite of me is Uzumaki Naruto? How is he doing?"

"You know about him?"

"Sasuke told me all about it. Says I chose Naruto, I take it that's what you meant by someone opposite of me. I also remember trying to run away with him three years ago. Can you pass along a message for me? I'm aware of the restraining order and the fact that he's not allowed anywhere near the facility, not that I expected him to visit—"

"No, he wants to. He would if he could, but well, you already said it. You can't be anywhere near a hundred feet of him and he can't sneak into the facility in risk of being shot on sight."

"I suspect we had one powerful romance going on if they're that determined to keep us away."

Tomo made a face. "Right," she said slowly. "You're still adjusting."

"It'll be a while."

"What message do you want me to give him?"

"Tell him Sasuke needs his best friend back and that he should be a better friend and visit him. They'll only kill him if he's here for me. Loophole."

"Don't you want to say anything to him?" Tomo asked, concerned.

Hatsue shook her head. "No. I'm good." She smiled innocently. "Tell me about mom and dad, gran, and our sisters. Tell me all about them."

"Saiko misses you like crazy. She hates when you go away, you know that. You jumped straight into work from the minute you were released. She was looking forward to this week."

"I want to see her. Have her cleared for a visit. I miss her."

Tomo nodded. "I will. Aya isn't it taking it as we wanted. I think she misses you the most. Mom and dad don't know how to deal with her. She's been coming home late lately and even my aunt can't talk sense into her."

"Tell her I'll find a way to make her just like me so that we can be attached at the hip from here on out. Tell them I love them and that I'll be at their next birthdays. Just get gran on the job. She can get me out temporarily."

Tomo laughed. "Mom and dad, they just want the best for you."

"I won't be fine until I leave this place and never come back, but don't say that to them. It'll worry them. Say I suggested they go visit India, it's a beautiful country and I'm sure they'll enjoy it."

Hatsue talked to her sister for nearly an hour before the nurse returned to the room, calling her back. As she hugged Tomo goodbye she asked her to get Yue to visit. They had a pending conversation and if anyone was going to give her answers, it'd be her best friend.

When Hatsue was returned to her room, she clambered onto the edge of Sasuke's bed. He looked up from his book. "Do we have some form of classification?"

"Other than not human?"

"Other than not human."

"For a while they called us demons, but that's what they call the mutations. They don't know what to call us."

Relief washed over her. "Oh good god, I dreaded the V-word."

"V-word?"

"I imagined we were pale enough to pass as vampires and for the last few days I've had a lot of mouth pain to go with the sharper canines, but I also noticed I wasn't hypersensitive to sunlight and I had a piece of the garlic bread during lunch. We haven't turned to ashes yet, but this is sounding like a great idea for a Halloween costume." She paused for breath. "I was wondering if the aphrodisiacs were for what I thought they were."

"What do you think they're for?" he asked, slamming his book shut. She single-handedly disturbed his quiet time and though willing to indulge her, he looked unpleasant.

"Considering we're the same race and everyone else is a mutated version of us and we're here because they're trying to make a drug out of our _condition _and we're obviously not producing the best results and the aphrodisiac is a—"

"Stop talking."

"—it's a sexual stimulant and they never let me have a boyfriend of my choice, same could be said about you, of course. Is it safe to assume we're in the same room being drugged with that kind of drug so we get down to some dirty business under the sheets? Thus successfully ending the mating nonsense and my eyeing someone else and the possibility of a pregnancy that may result in a little one capable of aiding in the mystery of our DNA and how to turn it into a chemical to make a horde of other superhumans like us?"

"You're not my type."

"That's fantastic, 'cause you're not mine either. I'm sure being the right type is important."

"As it is important to keep you from interbreeding with a human nobody," he added.

"Is that any way to talk about your best friend?" she chastised. "You were very snarky."

Sasuke reopened his book. "Do something productive."

"I am readjusting to my surroundings and welcoming different levels of headaches as the fabrications start going away. Asking unnecessary questions help and I know deep down inside you like having the company."

She almost heard the chirp of crickets in the background. She sighed, dropping fully onto his bed with her hands folded over her stomach. She felt disturbed, used and confused, but above all, disturbed.

"Why is it that we live in a perfectly normal society when demons exist?"

"It's uncommon. One has to inherit it from an ancestor and it usually skips a generation or two. The idea is that our kind existed for as long as humans have, but remained hidden amongst them until the anthropologist discovered old demon bones in different sites all around the world making it a possibility that horned beings once walked among them."

"Let me guess, some idiot decided to reveal a whole generation of clueless demon spawn?"

"Some idiot grew horns in the middle of work and went into a rage that killed at least ten co-workers and critically wounded seven," he corrected. "But you are right on one account. Our generation was clueless. At this moment, we're the oldest demons in existence, unless there are others and just decided to stay quiet to avoid exposure."

"The others are mutations of us. How come they're considered the mutations and we're the normal ones?"

"We don't get ashy skinned or grow horns, yet we've got the same abilities as them and others unique to us. We're more humanoid than they'll ever be. The scientist in charge thinks it has everything to do with our ancestors consisting predominantly of demons before interbreeding happened with humans. That's why we had grandparents and parents that were completely normal. Great-grandparents too."

"And their demon families started interbreeding with humans early?"

"Supposedly."

"So in vampire terms, we are pureblooded to their common asses?"

"Yes."

"And it can only be one person from the family to get the secret demon gene?"

"Yes, so your sisters are fine."

"If we bite someone…will they turn like us…?"

Sasuke grinned and she noticed his canines were longer than normal. "Why don't you try it?"

"Your nurse or mine?" she asked, mirroring the malevolent grin. She couldn't deny the impulse after he challenged her to try it.

"You take mine, I take yours."

The nurses wouldn't return to the room until later that evening to escort them to the cafeteria for dinner, which meant they were less likely to have anything to eat at all. The food was less likely to be packaged, but at least they were given bottled juice.

"You know what's hilarious?" asked Hatsue suddenly.

"Do I care?"

"Earlier you said we were immune to poisons and yet we're not eating the food because of an aphrodisiac."

"Ever considered said drug was made specifically for us?" he challenged. "Think for once."

"I don't like how much you make me think."

"It wouldn't kill you to try it."

She rolled her eyes. "Can we act our age for a few minutes?"

"How long have you been here?"

"Not long enough."

"Altogether."

"Ten years, on and off. So my clouded memory says."

"That man I told you about, the first case, he happened when we were juniors. What about the bones that have been dug up? Those were under the radar for years before we were announced to the world. How long do you think they've been researching us? Why do you think they can keep us in the facility in the first place, if we were so strong, don't you think we could have killed them all and left?"

"Obviously they would eventually find a way to control us with all the research," Hatsue concluded as sarcastically as possible. "Oh please, don't look so offended, I was—"

He raised a hand to silence her.

She heard the lock click as though it had sounded beside her ear directly. The door opened a crack and one of their nurses appeared, though she didn't have a chance to see whether it was hers or Sasuke's when a gray blur tackled her to the ground.

There was a thud when her body hit the ground followed by unnerving quiet.

Hatsue straightened. "Holy shit! Is she okay?"

She looked to Sasuke to find him missing.

The door squealed open, drawing her attention to her roommate who stood beside the body with blood down his front.

Her first reaction: panic.

She panicked. She scrambled to the edge of the bed until she ran out of mattress and her back crashed into the floor. She shot up immediately.

"Holy shit!" she cried. "Holy shit! It was a joke! I was kidding about the whole biting thing!"

Sasuke tried to clean the blood off his mouth, but only smeared it. He looked downright vicious.

Hatsue stepped around her bed and moved up the set of steps to the doorway, her heart beating a mile a minute. She tiptoed closer, staring down at the frozen expression on her nurse's face.

She shot Sasuke an accusing look. "How could you do this?"

He shrugged.

She found a towel on one of the couches and tossed it at his face. "Clean up!" she stated. "That's what we do first and then we get rid of the body!"

Sasuke used the towel to clean most of the blood off his face and neck, but there was a stain down his shirt. And she felt her body give way to the next wave of panic.

He touched her shoulder with his fingers and pointed at the security camera taping the front door.

She wailed. "We need to hide the evidence!" She grabbed his shirt and started tugging at it. "Hurry and get it off! There's blood on it! I'll get you a clean one. And then I'll drag the body into the bathroom, we'll clean her up—I'll clean her up, you get in the shower. Oh god, this can't get any worse—"

Someone in the hallway screamed.

Hatsue poked her head out into the hallway. Sasuke's nurse was shaking like a leaf, her hands held in front of her mouth. When she lifted her gaze to her, her eyes bugged out of their sockets and instinctively, she turned to run.

"Do something!" she shouted at Sasuke.

"We made a deal," he reminded her.

"I don't want to bite her!"

"Then stop her yourself."

Sasuke shoved her out of the room and slammed the door in her face.

The nurse was nearly out of sight when she glimpsed down the hallway. If she made it to the staircase, she'd get away with telling the world and—

"Come on!" she cried, rushing after her. She could at least stop her. "Hey! I don't remember your name, but please stop! I'm the nice one!"

As if on cue, the nurse tripped and slammed face first into the floor.

"Why do people always trip when I chase them?" Hatsue complained, realizing she was nearly feet away from the nurse. She looked over her shoulder, a whole stretch of hallway lay between where she stood now and where she was before.

The nurse scrambled to her feet, screaming bloody murder.

Hatsue reached her, grabbing her wrist. She gave the woman the gentlest tug towards her, but when she did, she heard something pop.

With a horrified look, the nurse gave a pained scream and Hatsue realized she dislocated the woman's shoulder because it suddenly didn't look right. She didn't know how. She swore she only pulled her slightly.

_How did I dislocate her shoulder?_

"I'm sorry!" she said quickly. "I can try to put it back!"

"Please don't hurt me," the nurse pleaded, tears dripped down her face. "Let go of me…please."

"Relax woman, I won't!"

"You dislocated my shoulder!" snapped the nurse.

"That was an accident!"

Behind her, the door opened and closed. Sasuke suddenly stood beside her. He shot her an acrimonious look, and then reached forward. He snapped the woman's neck. Just like that.

The nurse's body crumpled on the ground.

Hatsue reached her threshold for witnessing murder. She teetered away, back hitting Sasuke's shoulder.

"I need to lay down."

"Go to the room downstairs, to the visitor's room. You know the way," he said strongly.

"I think I need to lay down," she repeated.

Sasuke shoved her forward for the second time that day. "Go now."

His tone challenged her to disagree, but she knew better. _Fine! I won't lay down! _She scrambled away from the second woman's body and rushed down the remainder of the hallway. She nearly stumbled down the flight of stairs. She righted herself upon reaching the landing, tugging her gray sweater over her shoulder.

Hatsue slipped into the visitor's room, heart beating anxiously. She stared down both ends of the hallway in the hopes of them staying empty when she closed the door.

"Kikushita?"

There it went. Her heart. Skipping a beat at the sound of his voice.

Uzumaki Naruto.

Turning slowly, she faced him.

"Where's Sasuke?"

As he moved forward, she stepped back until she hit the door. "No."

His eyes grew wide. "Do you…?"

_Remember?_

"I don't," she answered quickly. "Not everything."

"Hatsu—ah, Kikushita. Sorry."

She didn't understand what sending her down here accomplished, but something deep down told her not to question Sasuke's actions.

"I don't think we should be in the same room," she said slowly, reaching for the doorknob stabbing into her back.

"Oh…right," he said in understanding. "Because you'll kill me."

"I was thinking more along the lines of a certain restraining order. I don't want to be detained."

Naruto unexpectedly grinned. "Have you seen where you are, Kikushita?"

"Five-star hotel," she said aloofly. "We even get free drugs. Not to mention free medical insurance and the fact that we're practically celebrities in this place. Oh, but of course, we get the drugs in our food and they're aphrodisiacs—yeah, I made the same face too—because they want us to procreate. Did you know I have a mating season? I didn't know I had a mating season."

"I see you're freaking out," he said, then gestured at the nearest empty table. "Do you want to sit?"

Hatsue shook her head. "Why do Yamanaka and Haruno think I'm a danger to them?" she asked softly. She wanted to ask Yue the question when she came around to visit, but if she had tried running off with Naruto, they must have shared secrets. "I get why everyone looks so shocked when they see me now, but why do they think I'll hurt them? Why are they scared of me?"

She didn't want to think about how easily she dislocated that nurse's shoulder, afraid that her lack of control was the reason for worry. Except, she had been perfectly normal up until today, she didn't hurt anymore…of course, she hadn't touched anyone either.

"You don't remember?" he asked slowly.

"I wouldn't be asking if I did."

"You nearly killed them all, Kikushita."

* * *

**(** _Part III _**)**

* * *

_Everything sounded closer._

_Everything looked vivid._

_Everything smelled stronger._

_Hatsue woke that morning to those very thoughts. She wrote them down so she wouldn't be surprised by it later and carried the note in her skirt pocket. The idea remained applicable until she stepped out of her house, from then on she was one step away from succumbing to the urge of assuming the fetal position and demanding good earplugs and her own oxygen tank._

_She was literally the first person to know her neighbor's baby pooped itself. Nothing could make up for that._

_She settled for earmuffs and a mask. It lessened the experience and gave her the chance to latch onto the possibility that today was a figment of her imagination because she really did have a cold, not a pretend cold._

_School turned into a nightmare. As quickly as she made it into her classroom, she realized three things._

_One, Sakura wore too much perfume._

_Two, so did Ino._

_Three, someone forgot to shower yesterday._

_Everyone wore a little perfume; she spent the rest of the day sniffing the variations until her heard started to throb in protestation. The difference between Sakura and Ino and the rest of the school was the fact that they wore several different kinds of fragrances meant to complement one another, but really it did the opposite. A war was going on between Ino and Sakura and it wasn't over Sasuke as much as their perfumes warring for supremacy._

_The mask did little to save her the trouble of visiting the nurse's office. She must have looked exhausted because the nurse redirected her to one of the beds, but she didn't want to lay on it. The sheets had a particularly suspicious stench on them. She picked a different mattress, one whose sheets had been changed recently, but doing so made it seem as though she were admitting she had super smelling abilities._

_Regardless, Hatsue settled under the sheets contently. The nurse's office carried a lemony scent that dulled the rest making it easy for her to slip into a light slumber._

_Hatsue opened her eyes to the sound of a conversation nearby and a wave of familiar body heat. She blinked up to see Naruto sitting in the chair next to the bed. She forced her attention away from his natural smell—hours under the hot sun, grass, and something stronger…masculine._

_"Stop trying to humanize me, Uzumaki, it's not going to work."_

_"I just came to ask you a math question," he said quickly, holding a notebook into her view. "Want to hear me out?"_

_"I have a headache so I want to sleep."_

_"No problem, you can do it after helping me with math," he pressed._

_"Fine," she conceded, though she should have redirected him to Sakura. She should have at least asked why he walked all the way to the nurse's office to consult her about a math equation. "Show it to me."_

_Naruto flipped open his notebook, searching page after page for the one he needed. _

_"Kikushita?"_

_"What?"_

_"I called your house the other day. I went out with some friends and wanted you to come too," he started. "Today, we're going to karaoke. Do you want to come?"_

_"No."_

_"You didn't even think that—"_

_"No," she reaffirmed._

_"Why not?"_

_"Anything that involves groups and singing are a no go."_

_"But you haven't lived if you've never gone to karaoke with friends! It's the best!"_

_"No."_

_"Come on, even Sasuke's gone!"_

_"You probably tricked him!" she accused._

_Naruto looked very guilty. "I didn't. He agreed to go!"_

_"Then why do you look so guilty?"_

_He frowned. "Fine. I take it back, you're not invited."_

_"Good."_

_He continued flipping through pages listlessly._

_"What if it's just the two of us?" he asked, looking up at her._

_"Why would that make it a better situation?" she returned._

_"I thought you were shy."_

_"Do I look shy?"_

_"No, sorry." He dropped his gaze to a blank page. "I want us to go together…somewhere, wherever."_

_By the time he finished, his whole face had turned a bright red._

_Initially, she didn't understand, merely watched his face go all shades of red and his eyes wandering to and from her blank expression. When she acknowledged the meaning of his words, she swore there was only white noise in her ears and the smell of the sun coming off his skin, wrapping around her neck like a noose._

_"Are you asking me out?" she asked slowly. "…Like on a date?"_

_In waiting for his response, she felt her anxiety build up._

_"Uzumaki?"_

_At the sound of the bell, he burst out laughing, shutting his notebook, and jumping out of his seat. He touched her hand accidentally on his way to the door. "Well class is in the other building, so I should get going now! See you in class Kikushita!"_

_Hatsue stared at the door for many minutes because she felt the change as soon as it happened._

_She couldn't hear anything in a mile radius. She couldn't smell the disgusting sheets on the other bed._

_A simple touch stole the discomfort away._

* * *

Hatsue traded in her seating rights for an explanation.

Naruto dragged a chair in front of her and sat down. "Before anything, I want you to tell me where Sasuke is?"

"Would you believe he's hiding the bodies of our dead nurses?" she told him.

It took a minute for it to sink in.

"Are you serious?" shouted Naruto, searching her face for the assurance her expression gave without her permission. "You are serious! What's his problem? I told him to start behaving."

"Oh right, like he'll listen," she answered sarcastically.

"Those nurses don't like getting killed, you know."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, taken aback by the comment.

Naruto arched an eyebrow. "You don't think they let regular nurses take care of you, do you?" he questioned. "They're just like you; they'll come back to life."

She scrunched her face up. "Why is it you know more about this place than I do?"

_And why did that nurse actually beg and cry for me to spare her? _Oh it was getting the AA pamphlet all over again. Those bitches played them. Well, her. Sasuke must have known. Everything he said about trying to leave and not being able to accomplish it suddenly made sense. They couldn't because they were surrounded by mutations that probably didn't get drugged three times a day.

"Because I do visit Sasuke and he does talk to me."

"And here I thought your relationship was totally one-sided." She leaned into her seat, trying to seem more repentant than her tone. "I'm sure the me that will eventually come to terms with this whole fiasco after readjusting will totally take back this apology, but I really think I should apologize. I mean dragging you into this situation, picking you, and really just endangering you left and right—it doesn't feel right. I mean, I could kill you and that never stopped me. I'm sorry."

"You've never apologized," he admitted, completely shocked.

"I'm sorry for being such an asshole."

He chuckled. "You weren't an asshole."

"Don't defend me. I left the snob in high school and graduated into a complete asshole."

"Kikushita, really, you weren't an asshole. Even if you were, ten years in this place justify it."

"Where getting off point?" she reminded him. "You were supposed to tell me about school and why I've got the hens in a tizzy. Even my hen is in one and I want a reason not to worry about her mental health, she's crazy enough on her own without my help."

"I don't think Yue would appreciate you calling her a hen."

"Ah hah, so you're on a first name basis with my lovely hen?" she asked teasingly. "How long have you known her?"

"Do you really want to change the subject? Those nurses might wake up any minute now."

"Okay, okay." She waved her hand between them. "Proceed."

"Well," he started hesitantly, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's kinda hard to explain 'cause it happened so fast and a lot of the students ended up getting their heads cleared about the incident so I guess it kinda depends on what they remember…"

"I'm sorry, did you say something? You were mumbling just now."

"Sorry."

"Don't apologize, mumble at me some more," she teased. "See, now, who's getting off subject?"

"It just happened before anyone realized it; students were dropping where they stood. The air thinned to the point that I was suffocating. I just remember looking up to see everyone scattered on the ground and you standing with Sasuke." Naruto turned away and spoke in a soft tone. "They say you're stronger together than you are apart." He hesitated to meet her eyes. "They built this facility for you in this isolated piece of land where you'd be protected by others just like you."

A gnawing in the pit of her stomach upset the calm that had temporarily washed over her at the sight of him. She heard something in his voice she could have lived years not acknowledging.

She swallowed thickly, gathering her thoughts and thrusting them into the dark recesses of her mind. "So this whole building is just for me and Sasuke…?"

In the distant, she heard the blaring of an alarm. She scrambled out of her seat. "That's my cue to leave and yours to pretend you saw nothing."

"Kikushita—"

He took her by the wrist.

Hatsue stole the heat from his body. Literally. "Oh."

Shouting in the background reached her ears.

He didn't seem to have anything prepared after saying her name. The moment that passed between them lost the awkward quality she expected of all their conversations. She wondered if she stopped feeling it upon learning they had a history, but at the same time imagined that would be more of a reason to remain uncomfortable.

Knowing, not knowing, there was no winning in her situation.

"I should go," she whispered, trying not to tug her wrist free.

"You won't kill me, Kikushita," he said, a determined look in his face. "I'm immune."

His words might as just turned her into to a mass of jelly with a butterfly heart. She said nothing; she couldn't find her voice even if she tried. She ran straight for the door as soon as he dropped her wrist. Outside, someone took her by the arm and hurled her across the hallway.

Her body slammed into the ground hard once before rebounding and shooting straight through a window. Shattered glass cut through the air, singing against the howling winds.

She hit the grass hard, but she barely felt the sting of glass shards stabbing into her back. She expelled a breath, eyes fluttering up to the row of windows facing down and then to the one from which she was expelled, temporarily paralyzed after the impact. She only saw a looming darkness at the window before heavy footfalls alerted her to the arrival of several giant guard men with their weapons.

Hatsue flopped onto her side.

"Don't touch her."

Every guard on the ground stilled, eyes moving to the direction of the authoritative voice. She followed their gazes to Tsunade, the head physician that had dealt with most of her midday medical tests.

As the blond woman stepped closer to her, the crowd of giant men parted. Behind her, her assistant rushed to keep up.

"Can you get up?" asked Tsunade, crouching down at her side. "I'll need to remove the glass from your back. It's best if you stay still."

She stared at the doctor hazily. She remembered hearing Naruto calling out her name as soon as she hit the sleek floor and rebounded.

"Uzumaki…?" she whispered, feeling a prick in her arm. Her eyes wandered to the assistant Shizune, who pulled a syringe from the vein in her arm. "Wait—what was that?"

She reacted to the drug immediately. Every one of her limbs sagged, feeling too heavy to move, and her vision started to break apart into darkness.

"Uzumaki Naruto will be escorted out of the facility," Tsunade explained, soothingly patting the side of her face. "You are a danger to him and what Uchiha Sasuke did was wrong."

Hatsue opened her mouth to say something. _Why is it wrong?_

* * *

_"Well always have junior orientation."_

_Hatsue blinked up at Naruto, aghast. "Why would you even bring that up?"_

_Naruto dropped their school's yearbook on the table and slid it across the table to her. "Have a look."_

_She twisted the book around and stared skeptically at the year's best of everything. Best Couple went to Inuzuka Kiba and Hyuga Hinata. She didn't understand that at all._

_"Why are Inuzuka and Hyuga best couple? It's awkward just watching them try to talk to each other and they've been together since when? Sophomore year? You'd think they'd get over that."_

_"I think they're endearing," admitted Ino, perusing her own yearbook. "She's so shy, he's so annoying. It works."_

_"Like you're one to talk," Hatsue commented._

_"Play nice, Hatsue," remarked Sakura, taking the empty seat beside Ino._

_Ino grumbled in agreement._

_"I'd be a miserable teenager if I didn't take advantage of so many opportunities."_

_Naruto laughed._

_"Why are you laughing?" snapped Sakura. "You're the reason she and Sasuke-kun are so passive aggressive."_

_"You'd know if I was passive-aggressive, I wouldn't dare keep that from you Sakura," remarked Hatsue, skimming over the shoddy awards in the yearbook._

_At that, Sasuke smirked._

_"Anti-social?" Ino suggested._

_"The fact that you're trying this hard to categorize us means you have way too much time on your hands," Sasuke replied, his bored tone offending their more sensible companions._

_"I feel like making you do my history paper, that's how much time I think you have," Hatsue added._

_"Hey, leave Sakura-chan alone, it was a joke," Naruto defended._

_Hatsue rolled her eyes. _Always defending his precious—stupid—Sakura-chan, idiot.

_Ino and Sakura suddenly burst out laughing while staring at their yearbook._

_"Oh god, I can't believe they actually added this in," said Sakura. "You just said it as a suggestion."_

_"I didn't think they'd put it in," Ino admitted between laughs. "I guess Chouji listened to me after all."_

_"Have you seen it? Hatsue, under Best Memory," said the pink-haired girl._

_Hatsue had to turn the page before she laid eyes on her biggest shame in photograph format plastered with 'Best Memory' on the bottom. She tossed Naruto his yearbook understanding what he meant earlier._

_"This is what you were talking about?" she asked, irritated. She turned to Ino. "Why would you even suggest this? Why would Akimichi even put this in?"_

_Both girls shrugged. They were more interested in laughing at it than thinking up an explanation._

_"Too bad they didn't add when she retaliated."_

_"Why would you say that? Just thinking about it hurts!" complained Naruto, hands cupped over his groin area protectively. "I seriously thought she'd kill me._

_"Don't worry, Naruto, my leg doesn't reach that far from over here."_

_Sasuke left his seat after one glance at the clock. "Later."_

_Sakura and Ino complained about Sasuke leaving early and eventually decided they had nothing left to do in the school so they gathered their things to leave. Naruto looked dismayed by the mere thought of the idea._

_"But we're leaving you in great company," Ino told him with a wry smile._

_Hatsue bit back a cackle._

_"You know, you're both kinda endearing," Sakura said suddenly, drawing a line in the air between them. "Like Kiba and Hinata."_

_"We're not even dating," Naruto commented._

_Ino smirked. "Maybe that's the problem. See you next week."_

_"Bye."_

_Hatsue waved at them lazily._

_"Should we date?"_

_She shot his reddened face an awkward look. He was fidgeting all over the place. "Ew, no, not if this is your way of expressing affection."_

_"What do you mean '_ew_?'" he snapped. "I'm not ugly!"_

_"Well you're not drop dead gorgeous either."_

_Naruto stood, hands on the table, and leaned forward. "What? You think you're good for me?"_

_Hatsue's heart squeezed. She had a real answer and a fake one for the question. To save herself further embarrassment she picked the latter. "No," she said watching the tension in his face give way to some relief before she finished. "I am too good for you."_

_She saw the hurt flit through his eyes and she instantly regretted being the cause of it. Why did she want to admit to something that she wasn't too sure of? It all started during the memorable junior orientation, the detention they received because of it brought them together for several days after school where they could do nothing but be around each other. From then on, everything sort of fell together._

_One day she rejected all his invitations to a high school social life and the next she was leaving movie theaters with him or strolling malls with his eclectic group of friends. All she knew was that when she was with him, she didn't have to deal with all the strange changes she experienced apart from him—the heightened hearing, the fact that she broke a faucet in the girl's bathroom when she turned it, and all the emotions on high._

_There must have been something in the water. She couldn't explain it otherwise._

_Naruto stuffed his yearbook in his bag. "I get it," he said, anger in his voice. "I'm leaving first."_

_Hatsue followed him out of the classroom. "I'm sorry!"_

_The words escaped her before she stopped herself._

_Naruto faced her once more, slowly returning to her._

_"Sorry," she repeated assuredly. "I didn't mean that. I'm not too good, in fact, I think you're too good for me because I'm just a terrible person and I'm strange. I _feel _strange and—"_

_He stopped before her, reaching to touch her face. Once more, when his fingers brushed against her skin she felt a surge of heat fill her as though she had absorbed it from him._

_She didn't get time to expect the moment when his lips touched hers, but her body reacted. Her cheeks burned brightly as her eyes fluttered and her heart started its loud drumming, knocking hard against her ribcage. She even had knots in her stomach._

_Hatsue blinked in confusion. His eyes locked on hers._

_Surrounded by the silence of an empty corridor infused with the deep tones of sunset, the two stood completely still for several minutes._

_Naruto touched his lips against hers a second time. This time her eyes fluttered closed, her hands found his shoulders, and she applied a little more pressure to the kiss. A doze knots formed in the pit of her stomach, her heart couldn't have drummed any louder, she felt lightheaded like a person that just finished doing a handstand after half an hour._

_She wanted this moment not to be a teenage cliché, but this kiss felt like it was a long time coming. She was only glad it came._

_When he pulled away he let his forehead rest against hers._

_The way he smiled helped her heart skip another beat._

_"That mean you do like me."_

_"I—yeah."_

_He pressed his palm to the side of her neck. His touch was cold. "Hey, you're very warm," he said worried. "Do you feel all right?"_

_"Just a little dizzy," she admitted._

_He planted a kiss on her cheek. "Let's get your bag. I'll walk you home."_

_Hatsue nodded as if in a trance. She couldn't believe what just happened. _

_She reentered the classroom to retrieve her things, trying not to give into a sudden wave of tremors. She reached for her bag, whole hand shaking violently. _

_She didn't feel right at all._

_She felt a burn in her throat as though she were about to vomit, but nothing happened._

_She tasted nothing._

* * *

Hatsue opened her eyes to the wall across her bed. Sometime during her last conscious escapade, she had been returned to her joint room with Sasuke and by the looks of it, her back was glass free and healed. She peered off her shoulder to Sasuke's bed and found it empty. She pushed her body off the mattress, heart strumming nervously, and swung her legs off the bed to explore the room.

As soon as she set her bare feet to the cold floor, the room swayed. Whatever drug Shizune injected into her bloodstream remained active and it had a vise grip on her.

She couldn't break away from the grogginess, so she struggled through it as she stumbled her way up the four steps to the door. She felt strange. Her heart aflutter, stomach empty, vision blurred. The things she touched, the air she breathed, the flat taste on her tongue, the black and white quality to her sight, the buzzing in her ear—everything distorted all around her as though it were slowly starting to break apart.

A surge of cold rushed through her from the pit of her stomach to the network of veins and the rest of her body.

Pain. She should have been feeling pain.

Every inch of her felt frozen. Her insides trembled.

Hatsue stumbled straight into the door. She hit the side of her face hard enough to feel her cheekbone bruise. She took several breaths—inhaled, exhaled, held each for as long as it took for her to count to ten, and then repeated.

She reached for the door handle with a shaking hand. She took the sleek gold surface and twisted it hard, expecting it to be locked. It broke off into her hand, a couple of screws rolled onto the floor, and the door creaked open. She laughed weakly, side pressed to the other door as she sunk into a seat. She just laughed while staring at the broken handle and the opened door, trying to stay conscious after making this very obvious discovery.

All this time, she and Sasuke could have broken the door down and left, yet they stayed. She didn't understand why they wouldn't take the first opportunity to leave. She didn't understand why nothing made sense or why it took so long to _readjust_ or why they should be so afraid of their DNA mutations that they wouldn't even consider leaving.

The only memories she vividly recalled were moments in high school she never knew existed. Memories that made her heart skip a beat or assume a foreign rhythm that made her palms sweat and her throat close up. Each one depicted a moment she spent with Uzumaki Naruto literally enjoying his company. She tried to brush it off when she saw him in the facility, not wanting to encourage the behavior she exhibited before her memories had been rearranged.

Nobody wanted them near. Everyone's excuse was the same.

She endangered him. She could kill him.

She didn't understand how.

But her memories did reveal a piece of truth. There were symptoms leading up to her imprisonment in this facility and something about Naruto eased the worst of them.

So if he made her better, if her influence did not work on him…why couldn't they be together?

Hatsue pulled her knees to her chest, letting the door handle clatter to the ground, and covered her face with her hands unable to stop herself from laughing. Every bit of hysteria gave way to gut-wrenching misery, every laugh turned into an unexpected sob, and soon she sat on the floor crying over emotions she felt didn't belong to her.

She experience a heartbreak so great…the loss was unexplainable. She could only feel it—a numbing pain stabbing harder with every tear.

.

.

.

**(** _...to be continued..._ **)**


	3. The Escape

**xl note**: I always wanted to be one of those fanfiction authors that add lyrics before the start of the chapter to describe the mood or whatever of the chapter, so I did it.

This was a real wrinkly chapter and I ironed it at least three and a half times, so it's not that perfect, but I promise you a perfect chapter next time and if I don't deliver call me out on it.

But the chapter was done and I'd like to thank these people: **YamiKitsuneKami**, **Aries01xD**, **Beira**, **mikethepokemaster**, and **littleauror** for reviewing the previous chapter!

Enjoy.

P.S. Vote in my poll for a potential double update next month (read the stuff on my profile because it helps...you know, somewhat). Beat those Redesign fans, they're won nonstop for the past two months (or longer, I forgot).

* * *

**All I Wanted** – The Escape

_"You saw my pain, washed out in the rain_

_And broken glass, saw the blood run from my veins_

_But you saw no fault, no cracks in my heart_

_And you knelt beside my hope torn apart."_

- **Mumford & Sons**,_ "Ghosts That We Knew"_

* * *

**( **_Part I_ **)**

* * *

_The tremors lasted well into the night. The palpitations went on until morning._

_Her gran appeared in the doorway to her room in a flowered apron holding a spatula in one hand. She entered cheerily as she did every morning she arrived to wake her, but today she found her awake._

_Hatsue had not slept._

_The visions persisted for hours—random images clicked into her head, of things she'd never seen before and people she couldn't recognize. The visions were memories, somebody else's, because they were not her own._

_If she could describe how she felt in that instant…well, she felt dead. Exhausted and weighty and dead._

_Gran seated herself at her bedside, pushing strands of dark hair from her face. She smiled gently, poking the tip of her nose with her index finger. "Oh, Hatsue, what green eyes you have?" she cooed jokingly, earning a smile out of her. "Such beautiful hair too, although, if I can be honest, a little conditioner could work some wonders on it. You know, we can dab a little blush on these pale cheeks of yours, maybe some lip balm or lipstick—your choice—and you'll look as good as new."_

_Hatsue gave her a weak nod. "Why don't you get your makeup bag, Gran, and get to it?"_

_"Let me go get it," said Gran. "I'll doll you up real nice, baby. Be back in a second."_

_She watched her grandmother leave with a new glow and a slight hope in her step, emitting an aura of hope. It was contagious. Her parents didn't want her to encourage her grandmother when she received life's verdict at the doctor's office after passing out afterschool because a dozen tests claimed she wouldn't be enjoying much of anything once her time ran out. The symptoms she'd been enduring didn't match with any known disease, so this was treated as a special case—the type all doctors and specialists waited for because they got to name it, except everyone on the team couldn't come up with a good name for her proposed death so they temporarily went with Hatsue Disease. _

_Hatsue ignored her parents pleas because she wanted to be with a happy Gran, not a depressed, hitting-the-bottle Gran, and if dressing her up in pretty new clothes, styling her hair, and coloring on her face did the trick, she was all for it._

_She stared at the wall absently when a light knock drew her from a string of strange new images. Standing at the door with a hand over his eyes, although he was peeking through his fingers, stood Naruto dressed for school that morning._

_"Gran won't appreciate you seeing me without my face on," she teased._

_Naruto pointed at the hand over his eyes. "Hence the hand."_

_"You don't plan on keeping it there throughout your visit."_

_"The visit was supposed to be fast," he admitted. He took a seat at the desk beside her bed. "I just brought by some donuts. I left them downstairs."_

_"If you brought them for me, why not just carry them all the way here?" she complained. "You were already coming this way."_

_Naruto grinned. "I wanna make you work for them."_

_"Well, I don't think you should have bothered with the visit. It's almost unwanted."_

_"I wanted to see you," he clarified. "The donuts were an excuse."_

_"Then see me," she ordered, reaching to swat his arm away._

_He dropped his hand from his face and gave her side a light shove. When she sidled over, he took a seat on the bed next to her and leaned into the headboard with his arms folded atop his chest._

_"I'll bring over your homework after school."_

_"You're planning to come after school again?"_

_"I plan to come every day," he told her. "Why're you making that face?"_

_"I'm not making any face," she retorted. "And you really don't need to do that. It makes me feel a lot worse than I already do."_

_He grimaced. "You just don't want me around."_

_"Perhaps," she said jokingly. She heard the creak of the staircase, moaning under new weight. "You should get off the bed. Gran will have a fit if she finds you here."_

_"Fine."_

_He removed himself from place and searched her desk. "Where are your completed assignments?"_

_"In the first drawer," she pointed at the one in question._

_Naruto took them and placed everything in his schoolbag. "When do you find the time to finish these packets in so short a time?"_

_"Don't ask impossible questions and go now before you're late."_

_"I'll come back after school, okay?" he said from the doorway._

_She nodded, a smile tugging at her lips. "Okay."_

_She wished he didn't bother, but at the same time, she was glad he came as often as he did. It made her grandmother happy she had a friend that cared enough about her to visit so frequently and with the old woman at ease, so was she._

_Naruto ran into her grandmother on the way down the staircase, she bid him farewell and kindly asked him to return soon._

_Gran reentered her bedroom with her makeup bag and an envelope in her hand. _

_Hatsue seated herself, back pressed to the headboard, with a bit of a struggle. "What's that, Gran?"_

_"I'm not too sure," her grandmother answered. She set her bag on the desk and sat on the edge of the bed. She removed the formal letter from inside and handed it to her. "It talks of a facility…for the ill."_

_Hatsue took it and skimmed over the first several sentences. It seemed to be for a clinical trial. One of her doctors must have given her name to the facility in question. The rest of the letter consisted of an explanation of how they believe to have developed a treatment for similar symptoms to those she's been experiencing, which worked for another set of patients, and believe they have something to offer._

_"What is this…?" she asked dubiously. She understood exactly what was offered, but it seemed too good to be true, so she felt taken aback._

_"A little hope, I suppose." Gran shrugged. "I'll be calling your parents about it, so we can discuss it. Okay?"_

_"Sounds great."_

_"Now, pucker up."_

* * *

Kikushita Hatsue caught his eye on the first day she transferred into his class, rumored to have settled for a public school because she had been expelled from private school for being one of those mean girls that bullied everyone around her for mere amusement. He couldn't deny the allegations because she had an air of superiority that diminished the prettiness of her being. She stood at a modest height and with a slight figure under the brightest lights in the classroom where one could distinctly see the deep hue of her eyes, the smooth lines that drew her heart-shaped face, the peach tint on her lips, and the curtain of thick dark hair that framed her head. She seemed harmless, but then she opened her mouth and the words that followed made it infinitely clear that she was, in fact, superior. Well, delirious enough to think she was.

She introduced herself briefly while scouring her audience of classmates with a mixture of grievance for her position and disgust. She thought it irrelevant to say any more on the subject of it and looked to their homeroom teacher to direct her to an empty seat. The one she took was the one across him and beside Sakura, who attempted to speak to her, but was ignored.

She made no attempt at creating friendships throughout the year, though that stopped no one from trying to be her friend and by the start of junior year she had acquaintances and he had become her biggest enemy. He didn't care at the time, he wanted everyone to know that she cheated on the test that made her top student and in turn, she showed him.

Never in his entire life did he expect to find himself interested in her, invested in the things she liked because he enjoyed the way a smile changed everything about her expression—lightened it, brought attention to the bright green of her eyes, all with a subtle curve of her peach stained lips. Laughter came easy to her despite how set he had been to see that she was but a humorless girl with a superiority complex. No, she was closed to the world, preferred the company of her own self to that of others unless surprised by the right sort, which he prided himself in being.

He wouldn't have believed it if his future self told his past self that Hatsue would become his girlfriend. In fact, he'd be sure his past self would have meltdown because it wasn't Sakura. Then again, he figured now, that if he could travel back in time, it wouldn't be for that. He wouldn't want to ruin in the surprise.

No, if he had a time machine, he'd steal her away before she was admitted into that facility. He'd warn Sasuke about that day and force Hatsue to stay home before everything happened. If that were possible, he wouldn't have these burdens to plague him through the night, but also that could affect the way his emotions developed for her. He loved her intensely, and though her absence put him in doubt, her presence dispelled it. To see her live, to see her well, to see her act as he remembered—every bit of uncertainty he endured vanished, but he couldn't do anything about it. He could only pretend that it was the first time he'd seen her since high school, speak to her as if they only had a brief acquaintance when they had been much more than that at one point. He agreed to move on with his life, honor an agreement so she would be the only one to forget and he'd be the selfish one that remembered every moment that they shared.

Naruto left his bed in the middle of the night for a glass of water. He sat in silence wondering if it was too late to make a call, so he settled on writing a text to Sakura. He worded it as innocently as possible, a short message that asked her to lunch whenever she had time. Once sent, he replicated the same text and sent it to several of his schoolmates because they needed to have a serious talk about the skeletons in their closets.

He stared at his mobile phone long after, thinking back to the short time he looked upon Hatsue's face and the subtle recognition she had of their relationship. Many thoughts ran through his head after he was escorted out of the facility, the first thanking Sasuke for making a visit with Hatsue possible and second that he shouldn't have left without her. If she were outside fully aware of her capabilities, they could break Sasuke out with ease.

"Shit," he murmured, running a hand over his head. "I should have thought of this before."

* * *

It proved impossible to gather his schoolmates and even more so to convince any of them to lend a hand in removing Sasuke and Hatsue from the facility. He tried explaining their unfortunate situation, expressing his concern for their wellbeing, but the response was always the same. Nobody cared enough for them to save them because in the end, it seemed to them, that they didn't need saving. Sasuke and Hatsue were immortal—they were not of this world, they were horned, dangerous demons that had no place among the humans.

_"They're immortal, Naruto, you think they care about anything that's done to them? They get killed, they come back to life."_

_"The facility is doing a good thing for the human race, Naruto; they're finding cures for the incurable. Uchiha and Kikushita are a necessary sacrifice."_

_"If they wanted to get out, they would have already. They're the alphas in their race; others of their kind wouldn't stand a chance against them, not even if they were hit by a horse tranquilizer."_

_"I understand it's wrong, there's no humanity in what's being done to them, but what can we do? These facilities are government funded and top secret. If we bring attention to what they're really doing, we'll get killed. If we try to do something about it ourselves, we'll be killed. There's no winning in this situation. It's beyond our power. I think in the ten years Sasuke's been in there and Hatsue's been in and out, they've come to the same realization."_

_"Naruto, just give up."_

_"Uchiha and Kikushita are dangerous. The last time we were near them, they tried to claim our lives as their own. They're better off being in the facility, far away from humanity. Let the scientists do as they please so long as they stop releasing Kikushita—that cure, it's not working."_

He thought up every necessary comeback.

_"What about the psychological damage? You think you could die that many times in so many different ways, some more monstrous than the last, and be okay?"_

_"No, they're not. They're trying to find a way to make superhumans using their DNA. The finding a cure for cancer is complete bullshit. It's called a cover story!"_

_"You think they've never tried? Don't you think the first thing their captives thought of was a drug strong enough to knock them out?"_

_"We can try! And of course they've given up, wouldn't you? But what kind of people are we to give up on them?"_

_"You suck!"_

_"I'm sure they'll learn to control it, one way or another, it's just a matter of trying. Nobody's around to teach them and if we can find others like them. I know they're out there, we just have to find them."_

Sadly, every retort he offered was shot down by everyone's own doubt and his lack of proper knowledge in what happened within the facility. The flaw in his grand scheme was that he didn't have a plan at all. He thought that once he gathered everyone, together they could stumble onto an idea that could guarantee Hatsue and Sasuke's escape from that hellhole, but it seemed he would need to take some extreme measures.

Naruto devised a foul-proof approach to the person he considered his last hope and spent the entire morning waiting in the elevator of his building for the person in question to make an appearance that morning. He encountered many people riding the elevator, more than once with a couple that gave him strange looks and tried not to laugh when they stepped out onto their floor, until the raven-haired woman entered the elevated, surprised to see him.

"Oh? Good morning, Naruto-kun," greeted Hyuga Hinata, sidling towards the control panel to press the lobby button. "Don't you live on the floor below this?"

He waited for the metal doors to slide close before answering her question. "Yup," he answered with a nod, moving over to the panel. She stepped away to make room, intrigued by his actions, but not sure enough to decipher them. "Hinata, I want to talk about something with you and I hope at least you are willing to listen."

Hinata froze up when he forced the elevator to a halt with a press of a button. She stared at him wide-eyed and thoroughly spooked. "Naruto-kun?"

"Sasuke and Hatsue," he started and watched her face melt into one of compassion. He avoided seeking her out in his earlier endeavors because he promised never to involve her. She pleaded for the sake of her family and Kiba. "It's been ten years. Nobody's tried in ten years."

She turned her lilac gaze away, shrinking in the shadow of her doubt. "I-It's difficult," she explained meekly. "They are…they are the only one's of their kind. No one wants them—"

Naruto fought for words, searched his own memory for untruth in her own, but instead, there seemed none. He looked at her, unable to mask the torment he felt for being unable to help them. Ten years had since passed since the facility stole the two from their home, took their freedom on false pretenses—dangerous to society when neither one knew something was wrong, that they weren't human, that the world thought them monsters without purpose but to be used and abused by the scientists in the facility. They deserved futures of their choosing.

"You're the only one that can help me help them," he told her after gathering his thoughts and finding his conviction. "One alone is fine, if I can get Sasuke or Hatsue out, we can do the rest ourselves."

She hesitated because he placed her in a difficult situation. "My family will not be happy," she said grievously, though her eyebrows were drawn and her gaze steady. "But, I too, am ashamed not to have been able to do anything for them. We are of a different world, but we are not monsters. I will help you."

"I could kiss you right now, but Kiba would kill me!" he exclaimed

She laughed. "Forget Kiba, it's Hatsue-san you should worry about."

He shuddered at the thought and pressed the button for the elevator to resume.

The day Hatsue appeared at his apartment, he'd solicited Mayu's company to keep his mind preoccupied from her and the only reason he kicked the other woman out had been as a precaution. Hatsue had a sixth sense for that sort of thing the first time she left the facility, no matter how altered her memory she stuck to the claim she made on him only to feel crazed as a result, unable to understand reasoning. Despite her smaller stature, she was a frightening woman and one never to be taking lightly.

Naruto couldn't help but laugh at the thought himself. It was too early to claim victory, he'd only just acquired one helping hand and executing the plan he had cooking up in his head wasn't one to do alone.

* * *

"She better be worth risking Hinata's safety," warned Kiba, giving him the dirtiest look in his arsenal.

"I can't believe you told Kiba!" Naruto complained to Hinata.

Hinata shrank in her seat, preferring to be anywhere but in either one of their presences, saying nothing.

"That's the thing, she didn't tell me," Kiba rounded on him. "I caught her making phone calls to the facility, so Kikushita better be worth the trouble you're putting her through."

"It's not just Hatsue, it's Sasuke too," he corrected, sitting down in the couch opposite of them. Hinata called him two days ago during an hour she deemed as safe since Kiba would be at work unbeknownst to the fact that her boyfriend wanted to surprise her that afternoon with flowers, thus eavesdropping on everything. The two dropped by his apartment, and now that he would have to explain his reasons to Kiba for undertaking this impossible mission.

"What's the point of doing this now, ten years later?" Kiba argued.

"The point is they won't expect me to do it now," Naruto answered. "It's been ten years of me just doing as Hatsue wanted and leaving Sasuke alone. Since the last time I tried leaving with Hatsue, I've honored the restraining order, found someone new, and pretty much lead an unassuming life. The timing is perfect."

Kiba grumbled. "Who decided this?"

"Don't argue," said Hinata softly. "This won't work if you start arguing. We need to think clearly because Hatsue-san and Sasuke-san deserve to live on the outside without being paraded as monsters."

"Your kind hates them as much as mine," Kiba stated strongly.

Hinata winced at the harshness of his tone.

"So they're the most hated species in the other world, it's not their fault," Naruto said defensively. "They never asked to be what they are. Hinata didn't choose what she is."

That shut him up and he felt a tag smug about it, but he did feel strongly about what he had said.

Hatsue and Sasuke were special cases in the Otherworld. The two were born human, to human parents, grandparents, and siblings—completely human—but they had demon ancestors and were carriers for the gene. Once awakened to their demon ancestry, all semblance of humanity fell away with it so they no longer identified as humans. It was something of a rare occurrence or rather a myth when it came to the Unwanted that after several generations one human male and female would carry the gene and repopulate the Otherworld with their unlikeable, life-snatching demon spawns. They were not only a threat to humanity but to Otherworld beings as well because it was in their nature to steal life force almost unconsciously from all living creatures around them.

Kiba exhaled, crossing his arms over his chest while leaning back into his seat. "All right, I get it, I get it, it's not their fault," he conceded. "But it's not going to be easy to get them out of the facility, it's government run and heavily guarded. You're not like them, Naruto, you'd faster be killed than help them escape. Since Hatsue's chosen you as her opposite, they know exactly what you look like and what to expect, especially after what Sasuke did for you that last time you went to visit him."

"I wasn't expecting that to happen," Naruto admitted, though he couldn't say he didn't appreciate it. Seeing Hatsue made all the difference to him because she recognized him for who he was to her. She didn't seem to accept it yet, but that was normal. "Sasuke set it up without giving me fair warning."

"Do you even know what you're going to do?" asked Kiba.

"More or less." Naruto dug out his cellphone from his pocket and handed it to Hinata. He also brought up another mobile phone, an older model than the one he handed to Hinata. "Ever wonder why Hatsue's never had a phone? I never gave it back." He stared at the device with a crooked smile. Before the mutants caught up to them three years ago, he snatched her phone out of her hands and switched its battery with the one in his because Sasuke told him the tracking device was there and not in the memory chip. He traded his for hers and watched the first mutant smash it under his massive foot as soon as Hatsue put herself between the monstrous man and himself. "She'll help me help her. All I need from you is that this phone makes it into her hands. The facility's full of cameras and there are more in the room she's in, except the bathroom. You've got to find a way to drop it off there and tell her, I know you have your ways."

"One of the physicians is taking time off work and I was offered an interview," said Hinata. "If I can get the job, I could have access to either Hatsue-san or Sasuke-san."

"You have to get the job."

"She'll get it, Hinata's over qualified. It's not the first time the facility has offered her a job," Kiba cut in. "Inside, she's in danger."

"She won't be discovered," Naruto assured. "Humanity is only aware of the existence of the Unwanted. Subdivisions within the other world are unknown so Hinata will be safe. She's believably human."

"You say, but what about those mutants. They'll sniff her out in an instant."

"They're Unwanted mutants, their heightened senses don't include a dog's nose. Besides, she spends all her time with you and your human enough to mask her demon smell. Well, what would I know? How're you feeling this?"

"I'll take care of it," said Hinata, slipping the mobile phone into her purse. She moved towards the edge of her seat. "What do you intend to do after the phone is in her hands?"

"Give her a head's up. Then I'll just break into the facility, snatch Hatsue and Sasuke up and then we'll hide them from the facility."

"In your apartment?" asked Kiba. "You're going to keep two fugitives here, in a one bedroom apartment?"

"Sasuke never got that far in the plan."

"So this is all Sasuke's plan?"

"He hasn't been in there picking daisies. He thought of everything. We just needed enough time to make it work. We only have this one shot."

"What're you telling Mayu?"

Naruto stared at him. "She dumped me after Ino and Sakura told her who Hatsue was."

"And you really expect Hatsue to just jump into your arms after Mayu."

Sasuke called it necessary evil. He had to look as though he had moved on and terrible as he felt for using Mayu that way, he never once thought he was doing something so wrong because it was going to help later on. If he wasn't pining for Hatsue, the facility had nothing to worry about even though it meant Hatsue would be broken hearted for an eternity.

"No, I don't," he sulked. "I don't expect her to accept my apologies or want me near her, but at least she'll be free, right?"

"Hatsue-san will understand," said Hinata with a smile. "She'll be angry, but she'll understand. I don't think she'll ever be happy without you, Naruto-kun."

He wanted to think that were true, but it was in her nature to be unforgiving.

* * *

**( **_Part II_ **)**

* * *

_"Graduation is a few days away, I want to be in class," argued Hatsue._

_She wanted some semblance of normalcy, one with the ability of wiping away her memory of the disease making life impossible to live. Going to school with the rest of her classmates was her idea of it and she planned to make it work no matter how difficult a feat it presented. _

_She hadn't left her bed since the symptoms exacerbated and her doctor informed her that she'd need a miracle to live past nineteen. She wasn't looking for a miracle. She just wanted to abuse the dying card—be sarcastic, finish high school like a normal person pretending she had a chance at furthering her education, enjoy her first boyfriend since private school, and watch stand-up comedians on YouTube. It wasn't asking much._

_"I agree with granny," said Naruto. "You're better off staying here for the last couple days and just go to the graduation ceremony."_

_"Your boyfriend has more sense than you do," Gran stated, set on blocking the doorway._

_"Gran, I need you to get out of the way before I tackle you outta the way," Hatsue said warningly._

_"Don't even joke about that, granny will whoop your ass."_

_"Listen to Naruto, Hatsue," she said, waving a wooden spoon threateningly._

_"Honestly, the two of you are being impossible. It's not like I'm going to die if I step out into the front porch, this isn't that type of disease. Besides, I agreed to that clinical trial, so can you cut me some slack?"_

_"Quit while you're ahead, Hatsue, this isn't a very convincing argument," Gran advised, nonplussed._

_"Fine, I'll give you my life savings."_

_"I have life savings as well. I also have a retirement fund and an inheritance."_

_"I'll buy you that makeup kit you've been eyeing for—the super expensive one you keep turning a blind eye to with all those lovely shades of eye shadows, bronzers, and pretty lipsticks."_

_Gran narrowed her eyes, stared her down, shot one fleeting look at Naruto before rounding on her with a jab of her index finger. "Both of you model."_

_"Done."_

_"Done." Gran stepped out of the way with a polite smile. "Have a nice day at school you two."_

_"Wha—no!" Naruto sputtered. "Hatsue."_

_"God has spoken, now let's be on our way," Hatsue zealously commanded, grabbing him by the hand and dragging him out with her. "I don't want to be late on my first day back after this long absence."_

_"You're not supposed to be getting out of bed," he persisted. "You could suddenly worsen and—"_

_"Call an ambulance," she suggested with a shrug._

_"That's not funny!"_

_She pulled him along by the hand for one complete block to ensure he didn't get any bright ideas on the way to school, but that didn't stop him from listing every reason why she should have stayed in bed, all for the good of her health. She came up with every snappy comment her mind could muster and it did nothing but aggravate Naruto to the point he threatened her after they reached the school gate._

_"If you walk through that gate, I won't talk you for a week."_

_Hatsue tried not to laugh at his weak attempt to stop her. "You won't last a day."_

_"You wanna bet?"_

_"Do it then. I'll be gone in a week." She crossed the gate before he formulated a retort._

_"Damnit Hatsue!"_

_She shook her head, delighted in the brightness of the outdoors and the warmth of sunlight on her cold skin. She breathed in the air and all the wondrous scents it carried with it. She missed leaving the house, she only realized now, but more importantly, she missed how easily it was to take life for granted._

_Naruto caught up to her. "I meant what I said, you know."_

_She reached for his hand, relishing in the surge of heat that filled her upon contact, and met his gaze with an arrogant smirk. _

_"You'll be the first to know if I don't feel okay," she promised. "You can even say 'I told you so' and I won't hold it against you."_

_Naruto conceded with a nod. "I'm not talking to you starting now, by the way."_

_Slowly but surely, her temperature leveled and Naruto's hand warmed. In the same moment, he glimpsed at her through the corner of his eye and smiled. She felt perfectly safe and in tune with him. It was equilibrium._

* * *

Hatsue nearly caved to the emotions she faced in the two weeks it took to make great progress in readjusting. The little recollection she had of the facility reappeared in her mind as a thousand loose threads that she struggled to knot into one solid memory—a vision she feared when she discovered missing pieces in the deep recesses of her mind to mold a nightmarish revelation, full of pain and suffering. She wondered how she managed to overcome those horrible tests, plugged into seven different machines or with so many drugs coursing through her system she couldn't tell the difference between hallucination and reality.

More so, it hurt her to imagine being in this facility for as long as Sasuke had, enduring the same for ten long years without hope of respite. She at least had her memories modified to exclude the facility or any lingering knowledge she had of her origins before she was released into the world to pretend she had been healed without knowing it herself. She'd always imagined the people in town stared because of the way she presented herself, for simply being a nosy town with a distinct taste towards deteriorating her reputation. She liked to think their reasons were that simple. She lived in a snooty town where everyone knew everyone and nothing stayed secret long.

To think she was the secret. To think they spoke of her because they feared her presence. To think they wanted nothing more than to see her taken away by the proprietors of the facility and locked within the lonesome building with a man the scientists forcefully wished to become her mate.

Unfortunately for them, her uncontrollable demon side already tied the knot with one Uzumaki Naruto, human, figuratively but also quite seriously. She had already come to terms with that morsel of information. Naruto was the one. He would be the only one. Strange as it sounded leaving her lips or wandering around her head, it felt right. The memories they shared were streaming in more frequently and the longer they lingered, the more emotion they seemed to awaken.

_I really did like him…_

Hatsue curled under her blankets with her arms wrapped around her knees. No. "_Really liked_" weren't the right words to use.

_I loved him._

Past tense.

She didn't want to say she was in love with him, perhaps the still-dormant demon was, but the human shell the modifications left behind didn't love him. Not yet.

Could she love him once all the memories came back? Was that how it worked all those other times?

But that would make it one sided. She saw that half-dressed woman in his apartment the day she returned his jacket and the way she stared her down as if she'd tossed her out into the cold. Naruto already had a woman in his life and although he denied she was his girlfriend, he didn't say he had no feelings for her.

Hatsue turned her mind away from further dissecting Naruto's love life. It made no difference to her if he picked up a lover or two in the years they spent apart. Why should she feel a right to jealousy? Why did the awful sting of the emotion assault her heart now?

She frowned, staring into the darkness surrounding Sasuke's empty bed. The zombie nurses were whispering about keeping him in the restricted floor where about a dozen horned guards hulking around every hallway and one needed a special badge and clearance from the facility's president to visit.

The lights flickered on, swallowing the room whole. She pulled the blankets over her head with a groan. It bothered her to think she didn't hear the door click open.

The nurse stole her blankets away, throwing them to the foot of the bed. "Come on, Tsunade-sensei wants to see you."

Hatsue obeyed wordlessly, trailing behind the nurse with a gaping distance after she dislocated her arm and Sasuke snapped her neck. Doing so was absolutely necessary if she wanted to avoid any real punishment.

She was taken to a downstairs laboratory where Tsunade did most of her work. Soon as she entered, Tsunade directed her into a smaller room, following close behind with a red pen and clipboard.

"You start ovulating soon," Tsunade said without preamble, eyes glued to the charts in her hands.

"Is every conversation we have going to start this impersonal?" asked Hatsue, taking a seat on a cushioned chair rather than the cold examination table. "So is this why my food's been aphrodisiac heavy these past couple days? You know I'm not going to eat it, right?"

Tsunade's eyes fell on her, eyebrow arched. "You are aware that I can simply inject the aphrodisiac in you?"

"Why haven't you?" she challenged.

"Because you and Sasuke are difficult subjects to maneuver and I had hoped you'd developed a proper attraction towards one another with time, but that was a mistake," Tsunade said, scribbling something into her clipboard before looking at her watch. "It's impossible for you to look at another man with that regard when all your instincts draw you towards Uzumaki Naruto. Sasuke won't intervene because his instincts dismissed you as a potential mate and it is his best friend he'd be challenging, a human no less. You're a fascinating species, but a fastidious one."

"Cue the aphrodisiacs to help us forget instinct and give into the sex."

"There won't be any more drugs in your food, so start eating all your meals and stop throwing out your vitamins. I need your offspring to be perfectly healthy."

"Why can't I just bed the human and be done with it?" demanded Hatsue. "I find the human more attractive than my brooding, demon counterpart and every demon needs a little sunshine in her life."

"We need a pureblooded demon."

"Can't you scour the world for another female of my species? I don't see myself being intimate with Sasuke. We get along just right, but it's one of those relationships that'd be ruined with sex. Why would you do this to us?"

"Hatsue, things could be easier if you obeyed. You could live a comfortable life here, have a husband and a family, you can contribute to this nation, help find cures—"

"Let's get this over with," she cut in impatiently.

Tsunade painted a pretty picture, glossed it over with shiny lies and delivered it with a tone meant to inspire her to open her eyes to a fake reality. She didn't want to listen to anything meant to justify her lack of freedom. Demon or not, she deserved to have some say in her life and what became of it.

* * *

Hatsue woke to the unexpected sight of Hyuga Hinata in her room, present to perform that morning's check-up as a future physician of the facility. She did nothing but stare at her rudely as one of the nurses gave her something of a tour around the place, explaining Sasuke's absence as punishment for bad behavior and assured her she was cleared to take a look at him once she finished there. The curious thing about Hinata was that she carried around a messenger bag overflowing with documents, one that disappeared when she asked to use the bathroom and stayed within the pearlescent room too short amount of time to do anything apart from powdering her nose, which she hadn't done.

Hinata kept the visit brief and asked her all necessary health questions including the uncomfortable ones that made her own cheeks flare. As she headed for the door with the nurse, Hatsue considered telling her about her forgotten bag when she heard a voice in her head.

_'Don't mention the bag.'_

Soft toned and polite—it was Hinata's voice. Had she been locked in the facility for so long that her own conscious personified itself as the meek woman doctor? Yeah, definitely.

She grimaced. Why would it make a mention of the bag? _For one it looked expensive, and secondly, I thought of disposing of myself via paper cuts. Hey, why didn't this piece of snark come in Hinata's voice?_

_'Hatsue-san, don't overreact.'_

_Shame on you, conscious, I can overreact all I want since I'm insane…_ Hatsue felt devastated in light of the revelation. _I'm even talking to myself in my own head—oh god, will I start hallucinating next?_

_'No, no, Hatsue-san, it's really me, Hinata, I'm talking to you telepathically. Please don't overreact, it could blow my cover.'_

_Tell me something I don't know!_

_'I left my bag hidden behind the sink. Inside between all the files, I stuck a cellphone. Naruto-kun wants to help you and Sasuke-san leave the facility.'_

_Is he stupid? Has he seen the size of these giants and wait—how are you talking to me telepathically?_

_'There are others like you out here, different branches of demons and abilities. I can send messages telepathically.'_

_Hinata, I could kiss you right now!_

Her laughter resonated in her head. _'Please hurry and get the phone, I've already informed the nurse that I left my bag behind. I'll be there shortly.'_

Hatsue casually left her bedside to enter the bathroom. She found the brown messenger bag where Hinata directed her and discovered the cellphone in between manila folders bursting with information. She turned the phone on and a new text message blinked onto the screen from a phone number she recognized belonged to her long ago. She clicked it open and fought back the excitement she felt when she read it.

"**This is the last week you'll spend in the facility. Wait for me. – Naruto**"

"**P.S. I meant Sasuke too.**"

She responded with trembling fingers.

"**You're going to get killed and it'd be more sarcastic about this whole ordeal if I wasn't going to shit myself in excitement. – Hatsue.**"

She heard the door open and stuffed the cellphone down her pants. She exited the bathroom unable to shake the anxiety this revelation brought forth and reentered the bedroom to find Hinata and the nurse once more in her presence. She held up the bag. "You left this in the bathroom."

Hinata rushed over, giving her a firm look that assured her none of the telepathic exchange they shared was imaginary, and took the bag from her with a grateful smile. "Thank you."

"Make sure nothing's missing," the nurse suggested, shooting her a cutting look. "Hatsue is a known thief."

"Ha_-ha_, demon joke, classic," remarked Hatsue, sizing up the nurse with a haughtier expression.

Hinata made it seem as though she properly scoured her things. "Nothing's missing. I had my phone on me," she said, showing it to the nurse that wouldn't have believed her if she hadn't seen it. "Can I see the other patient?"

Once more, Hatsue was left to her thoughts. She returned to her bed with fisted hands trying hard to calm her nerves. Eager to leave, she didn't care how she accomplished it, but she did worry for Naruto. She concerned herself over the singular fact that he was one human trying to remove two demons from a facility surrounded by mutants just as strong as they were. How he planned to accomplish anything in his situation, she couldn't be sure, but the fact that he was willing to try made the difference.

So long as everyone kept the demon tranquilizers to themselves, she and Sasuke would be able to contribute.

_Thank you, Hinata._

_'Sorry for taking so long.'_

* * *

**( **_Part III_ **)**

* * *

_Everyone found their seats once the bell rang. Hatsue tried to go to hers but felt Naruto's fingers brush hers intentionally. She followed him with her eyes all the way to his seat where he looked up at her with a boyish smile. She mirrored his playfulness and pulled back her chair to sit. _

_She busied herself with the textbook, going over what she assumed would be on the next lesson plan—anything to get her mind off the fever and strange chest pain she'd been experiencing since the last period. _

_Around her, the entire class continued their chatter. She distinguished voices, Naruto arguing with Sasuke in the back of the classroom, Ino and Sakura wondering where they would go afterschool, Chouji was busy stuffing his face two seats behind her, and Shikamaru was staring out the window. Sound engulfed her, pulsed through her, each time hitting her with a new wave of excitement, boredom, irritation, infatuation, and finally the swell of sickness in her chest burst like a tight string cut by a pair of scissors._

_Something warm slid from her nose. She blinked and lifted her fingers to the substance, pulling them away she saw blood glistening on her fingertips._

_Naruto warned her about coming to school today in particular. She didn't listen. She wanted to continue being normal and finish high school like a normal person, but she wasn't going to do that with blood pouring from her nose. _

_She didn't have anything to staunch the bleeding and dumbly cupped her hand over it in the hopes to keep it from drawing any attention as she snuck out, but the thick red liquid slid between her fingers and started to fall in huge droplets and streams over her textbook, notebook, and desk._

_She left her seat in a panic and started for the door when one female classmate gasped at the sight of her and she halted. The girl, whose name she couldn't think of at the moment, rushed to her side with a handkerchief. The action drew everyone's eyes to her embarrassing display. _

_Naruto burst out of his seat as everyone voiced their concern about the poor sick girl that wouldn't make it another couple months._

_She reached to take her classmate's handkerchief, hand touching hers for a brief second. That second was all she needed to feel a surge of cold temper the fever she was trying to ignore and the girl fell to the ground, pale as a ghost and twitching. _

_She lifted her eyes to the rest of her class to find them all wide-eyed and grasping at their throats, as if there wasn't enough air to breathe. _

_Naruto reached her, placing his hand on her shoulder before collapsing to the ground as the girl did._

_Sasuke shot out of his chair with a bloody nose. His dark eyes locked with hers. _

_She couldn't move from place, only watch the disturbing way her classmates gasped for air before their eyes fluttered shut. The room felt cluttered with energy, it filled every inch of empty space with electrifying energy. _

_She broke eye contact and quickly crouched down beside Naruto, reaching out to touch him when Sasuke appeared beside her, snatching her by the wrist._

_"Don't."_

_She felt Naruto's eyes on her and her heart squeeze. "What's happening…?" she whispered, looking up to Sasuke for answers. Her nose was no longer bleeding and a rush of confusion invaded her senses. She blinked, staring more intently at Sasuke who didn't look too confused, but she felt the emotion overrun her feelings of concern for Naruto. "…Uchiha?"_

_Sasuke quickly dropped her hand, shaking his head and blinking in confusion. He hesitated when he tried reaching for her wrist once more, but slipped a hand under her arm instead and pulled her onto her feet. "We have to go."_

_"Go?" she said exasperatedly. "We need to call for help. Everyone passed out."_

_"We go now or we won't be getting out ever!" he snapped, shoving her forward. "Now start walking!"_

_"But Naruto!" she argued, trying to get around Sasuke to reach Naruto once more._

_"Let's go!"_

_She moved away from him, backing into a chair. "No!"_

_"Hatsue, go."_

_Hatsue and Sasuke's gazes fell on Naruto. He managed to flop onto his back, taking one harsh breath. He smiled at them._

_"Take care of her for me."_

_Sasuke pushed her forward after reassuring Naruto. _

_She stumbled closer to the doorway, stealing glances over her shoulder at both of them. She understood nothing._

_"What is happening?" she demanded. "Why can't I go back? Naruto, he's hurt, I—"_

_"Naruto, will be fine! Everyone will be fine so long as we get as far away from them."_

_"What do you know?"_

_"More than you do."_

* * *

Uncertainty clouded her senses, ate away at her like a rabid disease. She tried ignoring the instinct calling to her in warning of things to come, but it persisted throughout the morning. The knowledge had no name. It simply was and she recognized it for the dread it pulled from the deepest darkness in her heart. For all the time she wasted paying it no mind, the burden increased tenfold by the time she received a fleeting visit from Hinata, who was supposed fill the role of her physician for the remainder of the week, and she explained a change in the schedule.

Hatsue should have been on the way to lunch, but instead found herself undertaking the staircase to the restricted upper floor flanked by two particularly smug mutants that ogled her inappropriately when they believed her to be lost in thought. No. She felt their slimy gazes raking her body as if she were in nothing but sexy lingerie for their viewing pleasure, not hiding granny panties with a pair of cotton gray pants and a white t-shirt.

A voice in the back of her mind urged her to force them to respect her, snap a bone or two to cast some fear into them, but the thought made her squeamish and listening to a pair of grown men scream wasn't her cup of tea. She thought of killing them with kindness, offering them sweet smiles and speaking politely to them, but she didn't have enough nice left in her to make the act believable.

She met with Tsunade in a laboratory upstairs. The minute she approached with a syringe, the guards seized her by the arms ensuring whatever medicine it was would be injected without fail. Hatsue struggled against her capturers, unable to control the cold spreading through her bloodstream. She feared the clear liquid within. Instinct warned her about it. She felt the chill in her bones.

"Stop fighting, Hatsue," the doctor encouraged. "It won't hurt long."

She gave her arm one hard yank and it came loose from his grip. She connected her fist with the guard on her left and his grip loosened enough to break free with little effort. Only the disoriented guard quickly regained his composure and slammed her straight into the ground. The blinding force knocked the wind out of her and fogged up her mind pushing her in and out of consciousness. With one knee digging into the small of her back and his large meaty hands keeping her arms locked behind her, she could do little more than squirm and scream.

The little fighting chance she had disappeared as soon as the second guard pinned her ankles to the ground, immobilizing her.

"I don't want that! Whatever that is! _I don't want it!_"

Her protests rang to absent ears. Shout all she wanted, nobody planned to help.

She felt the needle break the skin and froze. It might have seemed too late to notice it now, but she should have already been strong enough to best two mutants. The liquid medicine burned all the way through her bloodstream having an immediate dizzying effect and the feeling of free falling, a moment of fast moving pictures and blurring colors. She required assistance getting up once the hulking brutes removed their hands off her and even more walking because she couldn't handle any step without losing her footing.

"Forgive me, I had them spike your breakfast so this could take quick effect," said Tsunade. She redirected her gaze to the guard holding her up. "You take her to the room"—she turned to the other mutant—"You come with me, I'll require assistance with Sasuke. He'll be brought in once I have clearance from his physician."

"You're sick!" Hatsue spat, but she sounded too strange and her tongue felt thick. "This is sick!"

"I'm only doing my job, Hatsue," answered Tsunade as if that forgave everything she'd done to her and Sasuke before.

She continued shouting at the top of her lungs as the guard followed through with the doctor's orders, no longer forming words, simply screaming like a lunatic. A week ago, Tsunade called her in to tell her she would be ovulating soon. Soon was now. And the supposed medicine her bloodstream was in the middle of spreading was a wave of fire that sensitized her body to even the brush of clothing. The worst of it all was that she couldn't move an inch due to the drug she ingested that morning—and god, she felt stupid for believing Tsunade about her food being kept clean—so there was no way she could fight any of this. She'd simply lie there half-present as the nightmare dawned on her and it shook her. She'd be powerless to stop it.

Hatsue allowed her fear to escalate as bland hallway walls broke away into gray prison cells covered with heavy shadows. She memorized the way, counted the turns, until the brute reached his destination, a gargantuan room covered in windows.

The only furniture in sight was the soft mattress she discarded on like a pile of dirty laundry. She groaned pathetically, twisting her body around with great difficulty. She was numb when she so desperately needed to move and her brain was ignoring all her commands.

She wanted tears to cry in frustration and coherent words to plead for help, but all she received instead was a cold, searching hand on her abdomen. She stiffened, eyes widening at the disturbing grin on the mutant's face. He looked perfectly human, a monster in the shell of one. He stared at her with cold, unaffected eyes burning with a raw emotion, one that forced wave upon wave of lust through her.

She pressed her hands on his chest as he dove in to kiss her neck. She wiggled uselessly, panic worsening with every thump of her heart.

"No," she yelled, pushing as hard as she could. She despised how the drug manipulated her body into compliance. She didn't want this. None of this. "Stop!"

She closed her eyes once the tears blurred what remained of her vision. What little control she had of her body, disappeared with her efforts.

Tears dribbled down the sides of her face. _To be so weak when I want to be strong._

"You've never mated before," the pervert whispered at the base of her neck. "Not even to your human lover?"

She knew it never happened. Memory spoke that they came close on a single occasion but the timing wasn't right. That one chance they had, she pulled away from him, terrified of what it meant if they would. What if she ended up stealing his soul or something and killed him? What if going through with it was an impossibility in and of itself? She had so many of those thoughts going through her head that she couldn't really focus on where he had been kissing.

In the end, Naruto kissed her head, wrapped her up in the duvet and hugged her for the rest of the night. For one deceiving moment, they felt they had forever.

…She could love him again. If she removed that woman from his life and allowed the memories to grow on her, she imagined she could love him again. If his feelings never changed, she could.

The guard's hand slid down her pants and she gasped in shock, eyes snapping open, not for the heat the drug instilled in her but the hidden cellphone.

"What do we have here?" he asked teasingly, dangling the device before her eyes. "I'll have to confiscate this, save it for later." He whispered something beneath his breath that turned her stomach. "I want to taste you before that asshole does."

His hand went back to where she dreaded it would, but when it did, the door slammed shut and the bed sunk under another's weight.

Warm droplets fell over her as her eyes fluttered. She heard bone crack following a familiarly menacing voice, "Don't touch her."

She blinked several times to focus on the sight before her through the assault of sunrays, the guard with his twisted neck and horrified look being hurled out of the way by a dangerous looking Sasuke.

She swallowed thickly, somewhat relieved by his appearance but not at all fooled into trusting he wasn't as drugged as she was. She stared up at him, heart thundering in her chest, when his burning gaze met hers and she fell back into the grip of fear.

"Sasuke…" she pleaded.

"Kill me," he grated, shaking violently. He leaned over her body, taking her by the wrists and clutching so tightly she thought the bone would disintegrate. He struggled to speak with blood dripping down his chin, fighting off the terrible symptoms. "Kill me and run." He paused, the words that left his lips afterward were almost indiscernible, "…This will hurt."

She couldn't fight him. She didn't have the energy to do as he ordered. She'd have to accept her fate. She didn't want to think how long the doctors planned to keep them locked up in the room—obviously until they determined she was pregnant, but if this one time didn't do the job, how long would they be submitted to this torture?

Though her heart begun to crumble in her chest, rubbed raw by her state of mind, she wasn't the only one in pain. When Sasuke grabbed her wrists, the aphrodisiac's effect dulled to a harsh pounding in her head and crashing waves of horrible emotional pain. She wanted to think that this was all in her head, but it stayed a fresh, urgent tugging in her chest.

Long ago, after coming to terms with the realization that they were meant to live the rest of their lives as test subjects in this facility, they agreed that if anything was ever out of their control, they would go through it to ensure each other's survival. Death wasn't an option. Survival and escape were. They would do it to get closer to one of those.

She didn't know if this fell under the "survival" category. Was she supposed to give in? She would never be okay after this. He wouldn't be either.

Thought abandoned her as she fell back into present events.

Sasuke went straight for her neck and she shut her eyes tight, but he didn't taste her skin as she expected, he bit into it.

She let out a pained sound, body jolting. His canines pierced the tender flesh first, aiding the rest of his teeth to rip through it. He sank his teeth in further. She felt every motion with a sickening discomfort.

Blood poured from the wound and quickly stained the sheets beneath her head.

He drew back with an intake of breath before sinking back into her shoulder.

Again, she let out a pained sound, tears pouring from her eyes. She felt their bodies passing heat between them as if trying to find a balance, equilibrium she'd only found once with another. She whispered his name, "Naruto," and Sasuke bit into her skin harder, ripping the wound open. Her own teeth ached as her canines started to sharpen at sudden swell of anger to pass through them, but she suppressed the urge.

Sasuke dropped his hold on one hand.

She fisted that same hand. It hit her then. She could move. She thought of it more carefully. The affects she felt had steadily been replaced with pain, the harsh unrelenting pain Sasuke forced on her and she understood why. He did it on purpose.

He dulled the effect of the drug with pain.

She made a note to apologize and thank him later. She considered immobilizing him instead of killing him. As aware as she was that he'd wake up good as new the following day, she hesitated at the notion of murdering him, though he deserved it for choking her to death last time to prove a point.

The second time he detached his mouth from her torn flesh, she clocked him over the head with unbelievable forth that sent him rolling off the bed and onto the ground.

Hatsue pulled her shirt down and scrambled off the mattress. The quick movement pulled her under with an unsuspecting wave of vertigo that dropped her to her knees. Blood fell away from the savage bites on her shoulder. She touched the area and returned her hand to her face to see it marked by a violent red.

She couldn't stop shaking. Every move she made was tremulous and hesitant, full of enough excruciating pain to dull the aphrodisiacs effects, but that didn't mean she had her strength back.

Sasuke returned to his feet with a quick shake of his head. In the blink of an eye, he slammed her into the nearest wall. Her body crushed into the paneled wall, splinters found their way into her skin, each one pinching like a needle. The action snuffed the air from her lungs once more and she struggled to regain it.

Shadows bordered the edges of her eyes, mind wanting to give into unconsciousness. She fought to stay awake because if this sort of hit knocked her out, she'd probably wake up knocked up tomorrow morning.

_Oh god, why did I even think that pun?_

This move felt too direct, too crazed for it to be a deliberate move to push her out of his way as the bites had been. She lifted her eyes to his and met with burning red eyes complimented by graying skin and the tips of two growing horns at his temples.

She squeaked and his sharpened nails dug into her arms.

_'Hatsue-san!'_

Her eyes widened at the distant call of Hinata's voice in her head.

_Now's not the time, Hinata!_

_'Where can I find you? Are you in your room?'_

Sasuke made a move to push her legs apart, drawing her from Hinata in her head. She responded impulsively by pushing forward and kicking him hard in the stomach.

He barely budged and she panicked.

_Upstairs! Restricted floor!_

_'Is Sasuke-san with you? Can you get out?'_

Hatsue barked out a laugh as she jerked one hand out of Sasuke's vise grip and shoved his face as far from her as possible. He snapped his sharpened teeth at her as she struggled to pry her remaining arm out of his grip. He no longer looked at her and saw Hatsue, when his eyes met hers he was a rabid monster about to stake his claim on his woman—someone she wasn't. What sort of drugs did they give him? Well, they had to be bad if he asked her to kill him rather than restrain him and despite the demand in his voice when he requested it, she preferred the latter. The problem was that she never actually tried to break anyone's arms and legs before, not intentionally.

_Yes and no!_

_'Hatsue-san, we don't have much time.'_

_Much time for what?_

Hatsue's eyes fell on the dead mutant on the other side of the room, bleeding and with a broken neck. She never did that before and if that asshat was still out for the count—it did count as killing and an unconscious Sasuke would be easier to manage than a rabid one.

_'Naruto-kun is in the facility—'_

"What?" she snapped, then realized she said it aloud. She searched her surroundings, found the surveillance cameras. _Oh that's great, they were planning to watch us have sex._

_'H-Hatsue-san?'_

_Shit, I forgot you were still in there. Long story. Tell you later._

_'__**Wait, who's having sex?**__'_

_Hinata, why is Inuzuka Kiba in my head?_

**I'm here, too.**

Hurt. It sounded like hurt. The voice that echoed into her head and rang deep in her chest sounded like every pathetic emotion buried under a cluster of fear, anger, and hormones.

_Uzumaki…?_

She called to him in hesitation.

**Yeah.**

That weak moment was all Sasuke needed to drag her onto her back. He pinned her down with his body and she felt every bit of his desire invading her senses. The weight of his need shocked and frightened her to the point she could do nothing but murmur incoherently in her head until one passive thought emerged from a muddle of others.

_Anyone know what kind of extra power I got? I have an idea, but that idea is pretty useless to my situation._

**Good intuition?**

_No, Uzumaki, not good intuition. If I had good intuition, I wouldn't be in this situation. I'd be killing mutants downstairs._

**Well, you never explained it to me; you just said it felt good to touch me!**

_That isn't helping the situation._

_**Get a room, you guys.**_

_Shut up, Inuzuka._

**Shut up, Kiba.**

_'I can't get through to Sasuke-san.'_

_Don't try, Hinata, he's too busy trying to force himself on me. Wait—that sounded bad. It's not what it sounds like—_

**He—what? Where are you? I'm going to kick his ass!**

_Keep your panties on, Naruto, I'm handling it._

**I'm going right now! You can't stop me!**

_No, but I can shout at you to stop! So, STOP!_

_**Don't be stupid, Naruto, you'll blow our cover!**_

_'I've got clearance upstairs.'_

_I really like how you're handling this, Hinata, unlike the other brutes. _She continued kicking her legs and shoving against Sasuke surprised she managed to keep him off her, but she didn't like the invasion of his lust-ridden emotions mingling with her feelings of pain. _Okay, it's now or never._

**I'll protect you; just tell me where to go.**

_What part of I'm handling it don't you get?_

_**Naruto, I think we've been spotted—shit, we've been spotted.**_

A voice on an intercom started to blare from every speaker in the room. "WE HAVE INTRUDERS, SECURE THE TEST SUBJECTS! WE HAVE INTRUDERS, SECURE THE TEST SUBJECTS!"

She fought the urge to roll her eyes when Kiba and Naruto's slip had the two arguing nonstop in her head to the point she couldn't tell one voice from the other. That's when it hit her. Their mistake was a good enough distraction to keep the mutants busy before several received clearance to access the restricted floor. She suddenly laughed. Now was a better time.

Hatsue secured both hands over Sasuke's head and at the same time that he swiped his claws over her stomach, she twisted his head far enough to hear his neck snap audibly. He dropped on her like a dead weight.

She shuffled out from under him with a pained look on her expression. She touched the fresh claw marks on her stomach and turned to Sasuke's body. "I guess we're even now, ha."

She grabbed him by the arm, listening to the intercom spew its warning on repeat while the ground beneath her started to rumble. She hastily pulled Sasuke's arm over her ruptured shoulder with a hiss and got on her feet. She teetered dangerously, weakened by the loss of blood, but righted herself and started for the door.

The ground sloshed, catapulting her headfirst towards the door when it swung open and she slammed into the floor instead with Sasuke half on her.

"Hatsue-san, Sasuke-san!"

Her eyes rose to meet Hinata. The dark-haired woman quickly assessed the situation and took Sasuke by the other arm, helping her lift him. Hinata cast her a worried look.

"Don't worry about it," eased Hatsue, her shoulder bumping into the doorframe when another harsh tremor struck.

It took all of Hinata's strength to keep the three of them on their feet.

"What is up with this earthquake?" asked Hatsue breathlessly. She followed Hinata's lead down the rest of the short hallway before absconding behind a couple of crates when voices reached their ears.

"Can't you sense it?"

She peered from behind the crates to see a horde of mutant oafs rushing into the room. "Sense what?"

"There's another demon in the facility," said Hinata softly. "Since I've been here, I've only known about you two. They said other species were transferred to other facilities because of—"

Hatsue lifted her hand to silence the other woman.

The mutants spilled out of the room, their evident leader barked out orders to search the perimeter before trying to get through to security.

It was her turn to do the leading. She glimpsed at the darkened hallway over her shoulder. She'd been on this floor before, years ago, during which she explored several different ways to get to one of the two exits.

She hoped she remembered the way as she whispered for Hinata to follow, trying to push the idea of another demon in the facility out of her mind even though the earthquakes were steadily getting stronger. It made it that much harder to maneuver the hallways with random objects flying at them and the lights blinking on and off until they were finally cloaked in darkness.

Hatsue froze. "What about Naruto and Inuzuka?"

"Kiba-kun lost track of Naruto-kun," Hinata admitted worriedly. "I haven't been able to get through Naruto so that only means he's out of my range and…" Her pale eyes met hers in the darkness, shining with concern. "Hatsue-san, Naruto-kun is your opposite…you should be able to find him anywhere…can you?"

Deep down in her clenched heart, those words rang of a universal truth she obscured to cling to what little normalcy she had remaining because when she slept she dreamt of memories she couldn't remember when awake. She lived an entire life for ten whole years, a puzzle of events where she wasn't given all the pieces to complete the big picture, and for that reason, she refused to consider Uzumaki Naruto anything but her high school classmate even though she had memory upon memory of feelings detailing ten years she spent in blatant longing for him. The sentiments were clear; the only thing holding her back was the memory of the woman leaving his apartment and how badly that emotion clawed at her chest.

She stared at Hinata absently, at a complete loss of words. Had the cluster of unsorted emotions blocked him from her radar? She knew she could love him so long as his feelings hadn't changed, but they had. _Why would he come save you if they hadn't? _A voice in the back of her mind rang softly, trying to draw her from the pesky thoughts. _He would do this for anyone he cared about, _she argued, and yet, she didn't care.

Hatsue dropped her hold on Sasuke. "Take this hallway through to the end and take a left, follow the corridor without taking any unnecessary turns," she advised strongly, beginning to walk backward into a turn. "It'll take you to the emergency staircase. Nobody uses them so it's the safest route."

"What about you?" she called, forcing her to stop in the middle of the hallway. "You don't look okay."

"I'm going to find Naruto. And I'm pretty sure this will all heal in the next couple minutes."

Hatsue rushed down the rest of the hallway, the adrenaline pumping in her veins replaced all the uncertainty in her mind because her demon instinct was stronger than any modifications the facility's proprietors could have done to her mind. They could erase the memory, but the emotions were still there begging for her recognition.

She needed to open herself to them in order to find him, but as soon as she pinpointed his location one floor below, the ground shook violently, hurling her into the main passageway where at least ten hulking mutants were patrolling.

Vibrant red eyes fell on her. She lay on the ground surrounded by all the broken things and the knowledge that she was a slab of meat in the presence of hungry lions.

Oh, to be a 28-year-old virgin in heat, surrounded by ten giant demon rejects prepared to tear each other apart to stake their claim, well, she had to give herself a pat in the back for seeing the beauty in the situation—they would fight over her.

Hatsue scrambled onto her feet before the first brave men tried to reach her only to be confronted by the others.

_'Have you found him, Hatsue-san?' _Hinata's voice gave her a start. She even looked around like an idiot and made a note to get used to Hinata's voice in her head, then slowly backed away into a corner as she watched the scene before her unfold into chaos.

_I pinpointed him. He's on the floor beneath me. Did you make it to the emergency staircase?_

_'Yes. I'm going to find Kiba-kun. Take care of yourself.'_

She jolted at the feel of prickling over her shoulder, neck, and abdomen, a burning sensation that slowly and painfully started to repair the damages done to her body. If she had any lingering doubt in her mind that this was a dream and she was still human, this was her wake up call. This and the fact that she had a sixth sense for things about to happen and her special ability consisted of sharing the burden of other's emotions, which sounded like a great time if someone was drunk off their ass and bursting with joy, not a horde of males lusting over the female currently slipping away from them.

Another quake assaulted the building, this one was stronger than the others were that merely shook the ground beneath them, smashed various expensive gadgets, and shattered windows. This one cracked the polished ground until huge chunks fell from under the group of mutants, though only a few able to make a proper escape, and hurled nearby furniture at walls and glassless windows. The row of cells she recalled passing with that still dead guard in the room screech noisily as the metal twisted under the weight of the ceiling as it started to fall over their heads.

Another seismic wave hit as she attempted to take advantage of the situation. Like a rug pulled out from under her, the floor split and swallowed her whole.

It happened so quickly she forgot to scream, she fell down two stories of the torn building until everything stopped shaking altogether. She lost track of Naruto in that same instant, her mind drawn to the darkness threatening to override her consciousness. Her body had the misfortune of being cushioned by metal. A great metal desk that dented in her crash and probably dislocated or broke something in her skeletal system because all the pain she experience regenerating the torn skin came rushing back tenfold, exploding across her back.

Hatsue's whole body shook as she gripped the jagged edges of the dented metal. She hoisted herself onto a seat and then got onto her feet. She closed her eyes as she had many times before, but this time with purpose. Everything was clearer to her—sound and sight. She could easily determine where the mutants were running by their heavy footfalls and the darkness was no weakness, she saw as perfectly as if the building were flooded with lights. Her mind wasn't as foggy either. She found it easy to pinpoint Naruto once more, attempting to make it to the staircase. If she hurried, she could meet him there.

She took in her surroundings. She landed in an unused storage room full of broken boxes that contained broken glass and three metal tables. Outside, she recognized the passage as the one taken to reach the visiting area. She knew which direction to take and ran straight for the staircase, feeling him closer.

The warmth of his energy tangled itself around her and she melted. Everything else fell away into just that moment, the minute she saw him and no modifications obstructed the feeling of love that overcame her. But the hallways were empty and the rooms emptier. She should have taken notice of it. That small detail should have mattered but she didn't care.

She reached the staircase, taking the giant thing two steps at a time when she finally found him. The harsh expression on his face melted away when his blue eyes found her face. She hurried up the rest of the way, taking in the sight of him dressed in a custodial uniform with few notable scratches on his face and one deep gash on his arm.

"Kikushita," he whispered, relieved.

She threw her arms around his neck and melted in his embrace when he slipped on his step, dragging her down a few steps without letting go. With her heart rate accelerated, she detached herself from him to see his face just as he broke into a laugh.

He shook his head, apologizing repeatedly as his fingers touched the side of her face. "I'm sorry, Kikushita, but you're a lot stronger than I remember."

The briefest touch set her on fire. She locked eyes with him a second time. Her breaths quickened and her heart would beat out of her chest at the speed it was going because she saw recognition flicker in his blue eyes. His index finger slowly outlined her jaw and fell to the barely healed area of her neck. The skin was still tender, brittle beneath the deliberate touch of his finger. She averted her eyes. If she stared into his any longer she would cave to the aphrodisiac still in her system. The close proximity didn't help either. He smelled of sunlight and grass and a hint of cologne, a combination of smells that set her senses ablaze.

Hatsue drew back. "We should leave. Hinata and Sasuke should be with Inuzuka now."

Naruto seemed to have snapped out of a trance because he shot up to his feet, practically tossing her off his lap. He cleared his throat. "Yeah, we have a rendezvous point near. I told Kiba to go on ahead as soon as he got Hinata."

She heard nothing he said because she was too busy staring at his mouth and fantasying about it being on her. She tasted those lips before too long ago to remember what it was like. She pushed the idea from her head, blaming the aphrodisiac because she didn't want to welcome any of those emotions in her, not after what just happened.

She took him by the wrist and pulled him down a step. She stole the heat away from him like many times before. She gasped. It burned hotter than any of those other times, surged through her entire being once and then it leveled. Warmth replaced the cold of his hand and with the change came a rush of emotions—relief being the most prominent, joy coming in a close second, and the third embraced her in an intensity she could only describe as love. She felt the same. Every bit the same.

He surprised her with another embrace.

The action made her snort. She didn't mean to laugh, but she couldn't help it.

"Don't laugh, it's contagious," he murmured against her skin.

"You know exactly what my power is," she said accusingly, pulling away.

He scowled at her. "You're really good at ruining the mood."

"I don't think we should be getting so caught up in the moment when there's about a hundred mutants running around searching for me and Sasuke," she retorted. "Not to mention that witch Tsunade drugged me and I'm still feeling the effects of it. We need to get out and get as far from this place as possible."

Naruto blew a raspberry. "Mood killer."

"Cheater!" she shot back, starting down the staircase to decide on a better route. Since the earthquakes stopped, the guards started moving again, though it seemed only a few made it out of the seismic shock alive. "I bet you got loads of action while I was locked away in here!"

"That was Sasuke's fault!"

"I don't remember Sasuke leaving the facility to put women in your bed!"

"What about you? The minute the facility releases you, you put on your low-cut dresses and dirty dance with anything that walks!"

"I was promoting!"

"Doesn't mean you have to let other men take body shots off you!"

"Body shots doesn't equal sex!"

"What about that guy in that bathroom?"

"I'm going to kill Yue!"

She fulminated on her way towards the next set of staircase since most of the mutants were guarding the emergency exit. They weren't even dating officially so she didn't understand her own fury. Okay, she did. She was being overly territorial about her fated other and literally wanted no other hands on him but her own.

"I want to know what happened to you upstairs," he said quietly, his eyes on the bloodstains on her shirt.

Slowly, they edged their way down the staircase to ground floor where she suspected many would be in waiting, but he seemed to have a general idea on where he wanted them to end up. "What? So you can get mad at Sasuke, who was just as much a victim as I am, and punch him for absolutely no reason?"

"I'm still punching him, regardless."

"He took my mind off it," she answered briefly. "You should thank him. He saved me before that as well."

He grumbled.

"Kikushita, Uzumaki, stop now."

Naruto pushed her out of Tsunade's line of sight. Kabuto, her usual physician, stood off to her right flanked by two women dressed in black suits, the guard uniforms meaning they were demons except they weren't anything like the usual mutants. The resident mad scientist, Orochimaru, also made an unexpected appearance looking as snaky and devious as she last remembered him. The trio brought along a small cluster of mutants to protect them, though it seemed even they barely escaped the seismic disaster that befell the building.

"I didn't sense them," she whispered.

"They're a different species," Naruto informed her, ensuring she stayed behind him. "You can only sense other Unwanted."

"Fabulous."

She touched her fingers to his wrist and he caught her by the hand.

"Where is Sasuke?" Tsunade asked immediately.

"Away from you," Naruto remarked.

"Take Hatsue, kill her human," ordered Orochimaru without preamble. "If you find the third demon, capture it too."

The mutants were quick to execute their orders, starting down the rest of the steps while she and Naruto backed away. He squeezed her hand as she welcomed a wave of panic.

Tsunade and Orochimaru were the first to turn away to leave. Kabuto remained a moment, smiling down at them before following his superiors up the rest of the staircase.

Hatsue took the lead, dragging Naruto into a sprint behind her as she rushed towards the nearest exit or anywhere cramped where she could keep Naruto out of harm's way. She kept looking over her shoulder and the mutants pursuing them were making a laughable attempt to capture her because she was really humiliating herself in trying to escape with a human in tow and they were thoroughly amused. If she had an efficient ability to use as a weapon, they'd be better off, but she didn't. She needed to do something. It had to happen now.

Hatsue pushed Naruto in front of her. "Go to the rendezvous point! I'll follow after I get through with them."

He stumbled forward, jerking around with furrowed eyebrows. "No! You're coming or I'm not going!"

The first mutant made his move, tackling her to the ground where he wrestled to lock her arms behind her back. She fought against him hard in a handicapped game of tug of war where her mind swam in and out of consciousness.

Another mutant grabbed hold of Naruto and the mere sign of struggle on his part fueled her waning strength enough for her to kick the mutant off her. One down meant nothing when the others surrounded her and she wished another earthquake struck when it did.

The seismic aftershock arrived with a brunt force that tore the earth asunder and sank the entire left wall deep into the darkness below, the ceiling crumbling quickly. Several of her enemies were thrown under by falling chunks of ceiling and furniture from the floor above, sucked into the ground underneath them. Further down the hallway, Naruto struggled to get one mutant off him as his giant hands closed around his neck.

Hatsue tackled the guard right off and without a thought in her head, snapped his neck. She helped Naruto up and touched his reddened neck, but his eyes searched the perimeter, though it seemed empty.

"Are you—?"

Someone caught in her periphery, one of the female mutants appeared with a strange gun in her hand, one she suspected carried tranquilizers or special bullets. The latter terrified her, which seemed to be the most probable ammunition. Soon as the shots fired, Hatsue prepared herself for the pain she knew too well…but she received nothing because her body was shoved out of the way.

She slammed into the nearest wall, arms open to catch his body before she pieced together what had occurred. She slid to the ground with Naruto's blood spilling from his wounds.

Shouting in anger should have been her first reaction. She was immortal, he wasn't. Except, her first reaction was to cry. An agony bloomed in her chest and spread like a plague through the rest of her because in the exact moment that she recognized the scene for what it was, the loss she experienced was without description.

Once he breathed his last breath, and she knew he would because he wasn't even breathing right and there were bullet holes striking two of his vitals that would surely deprive him of life much faster than she could get him to a hospital when the facility stood in the middle of nowhere. She didn't go into automatic denial. Her heart wouldn't let her. It made her suffer through it.

And she was crying. Giant, ugly tears that made her tremble every time they dropped.

Naruto stared up at her with half-lidded eyes, blood crawling out of his mouth. He couldn't muster the words, probably couldn't speak them. Good. She didn't want him to say anything. Not now. She didn't want the sledgehammer to the heart goodbye that she'd have an eternity to remember because as far as she knew, he was her soul mate and now he was dead.

Dying.

He hacked up some blood. She wished she read thoughts like Hinata. She wished there was a way to stop this from happening.

The mutant responsible pressed the barrel of the gun to her temple. "Come quietly. You have nothing anymore."

She was right. She had nothing.

.

.

.

**( **_...t__o be continued..._ **)**


	4. The Dream

**xl note**: This is a week late. (Truth be told this chapter is a month late, but I was off in another writing universe). This is a week late because I cut about 8000 words worth of content and rewrote everything this last week. So that was not fun. And then my brother spent a really long time dancing in front of my desk in the hopes of distracting me while I was putting the final touches in this chapter. You can thank him for getting an afternoon update rather than the planned morning update.

I'm having trouble with the next two chapters and my outline isn't working...so expect delays. This will get a lot more twisted after this, so let this heal last chapter's wounds (well, try to heal).

Many thanks to **YamiKitsuneKami**, **mikethepokemaster**, **Aries01xD**, and **Fitz-Catsby** for reviewing the previous chapter! And to everyone added this to their alert and favorite lists, I am forever grateful that you've enjoyed the journey this far.

Please enjoy this chapter. It's okay if you don't, but I hope you do. :)

* * *

**All I Wanted** – The Dream

_"All I want is nothing more,_

_To hear you knocking at my door,_

_'Cause if I could see your face once more,_

_I could die a happy man I'm sure._

_When you said your last goodbye,_

_I died a little bit inside_

_I lay in tears in bed all night,_

_Alone without you by my side."_

- **Kodaline**,_ "All I Want"_

* * *

**( **_Part I_ **)**

* * *

_Hatsue sat under the partial shade of a row of park bleachers keeping a lookout for Sasuke who was making a beeline from the vending machine. The fact that he trusted her enough to be a reliable lookout instilled an unforgiving amount of paranoia in her—anyone so much as looked at her the wrong way made her want to run in the opposite direction like a crazy person. And there were people looking. Policemen mostly. They even had a hotline for people to call in case they spotted them after every news station ran pictures of them both, accusing them of the death of seven schoolmates and presenting them as highly dangerous individuals that were probably armed._

_They weren't carrying any weapons. The only items they carried were essential to hygiene and some extra clothing. They relinquished all personal belongings to put a greater distance between themselves and their true hunters, beings masquerading as policemen that worked for the establishment hungering to add them to their collection of monsters. __Sasuke said they built a facility especially for them on an isolated hill overlooking a farmland where it would be impossible for them to escape once they were imprisoned inside._

_Sasuke went through great detail explaining their situation. He only had three words for it: "We're not human." He waited an entire day for that tiny realization to sink in and she was hysterical. She demanded answers to the thousand questions running in her head and for the last week, he patiently divulged the knowledge she required. _

_Not that she doubted they weren't human. All the clues were there; their inability to stay in highly congested areas (because of the life snatching they weren't quite able to control) and the fact that they wore gloves to avoid any skin-to-skin contact. _

_She absorbed emotions. She could quite literally steal someone's happiness away from them with a brush of her fingertips. It was automatic, but she sensed she might be able to control it one day. Sometimes she could just read the emotions, feel them, but not steal them. Whether she stole them or not was completely random._

_Sasuke saw visions—past, present, future, you name it, he saw it. That time he hesitated when he reached out to grab her after the school incident she provoked, he bore witness to an image of themselves running towards the next town while being pursued by shadows._

_His ability seemed to have a different range because he touched a tree three days ago and predicted rain. The following day, she procured them jackets from a department store and unlike the rest of the townspeople they were safe from that year's most unpredictable storm. _

_Alas, he hated the visions because they gave him migraines and she hated the visions because migraines made him moody._

_Sasuke held a can of lemon soda to her face, pulling her from the clutter of thoughts in her head. "We can get to the next town on foot before nightfall."_

_She took it and uttered a curt thanks. "We can easily take a bus."_

_"We _can_…" he trailed off, opening a packet of potato chips._

_"But we won't," she finished._

_"You need money for buses."_

_"We could rob a bank."_

_"You would rob a bank?"_

_"I only suggested it. We can do it and it's not like they're not expecting us to rob a bank."_

_Sasuke said nothing as he dug into their complicated breakfast arrangement. Potato chips and lemon soda from a vending machine was supposed to last them the entire day._

_Hatsue took the first sip of soda before trading it for the bag of chips. Beyond the shade of trees on the field of freshly cut grass sat a few patterned blankets with people lying or sitting on them in the midst of enjoying a warm, breezy day or enjoying a picnic while their children played about the park structures. She imagined herself enjoying the scenery, pretending she and Sasuke were sitting under the bleachers because it gave them the perfect view of everyone else and that they enjoyed observing people in a not-so-creepy fashion, but looming danger made it impossible for her to see the beauty laid out for them._

_Sasuke called it "instinct." Instinct alerted them of other's intent on harming them or of an overall dangerous situation._

_She developed it once the nosebleeds stopped. It bloomed in her as though it always existed inside her other exalted senses and welcomed her warmly with a fresh view on life—one she was in the risk of losing._

_"There is something we could do," said Sasuke suddenly._

_She tore her gaze away from the perfect human world to meet his._

_"What?"_

_"We can go to my brother."_

_Those didn't sound like easy words to say and Hatsue wanted to be the person to say, _"Hell no, we ain't gotta see no brother of yours,"_ but she couldn't because her stomach growled up a storm every evening and she wanted food that didn't come out of a vending machine. Not that they could afford anything nice since they were down to their last five dollars and if a drink was a dollar fifty and snacks were in the one to one-twenty range, there would only be enough for two days._

_She also wanted her stomach growling to stop making music with Sasuke's stomach growling in the middle of the night. It wasn't even good music and she admitted that was her own fault. At least, Sasuke's stomach growling was classy enough to have a rhythm, hers was all over the place._

_Plus, they needed a real bath because public bathrooms weren't doing wonders for her hair._

_She decided to go with a question. "Where is he?"_

_"It's usually a three-hour train ride."_

_"It's not a long walk from here to the nearest train station." She elbowed his arm gently with a hopeful smile. "You know what that means, eh?"_

_"No more food."_

_All the good humor disappeared from her face. "No, that's not what I meant."_

_"Enjoy those potato chips. They'll be the last thing you eat until we get to my brother's house."_

_"There better be a feast and a marching band and a unicorn when we get there or else."_

_Sasuke got on his feet and held a gloved hand out for her. "I can only guarantee one and it's not the feast."_

_Hatsue accepted his help and dusted her backside, staring at him oddly. "I don't know how I feel about your brother, but I swear if he has a unicorn, I might want to stay with him forever."_

_He started leading the way, taking a gulp of soda as she dumped a quarter of the contents of the bag into her mouth before they switched. "You wouldn't last a day."_

_She swallowed the salted treats to answer. "I'd do anything for a unicorn."_

_"You won't leave Naruto," he said with a challenging smirk. "You have Equilibrium. You're demon married to a human and you never even proposed."_

_Hatsue flushed, shoving him in embarrassment. "I didn't know what Equilibrium was, and it's not like I could've stopped it from happening if I did!"_

_All those times she touched Naruto's hand and felt her body absorbing the heat from his (without stealing the life force as she did to that classmate of hers) was a part of something one demon did with someone opposite of them, their soul mate. It was the first step in identifying their soul mate. The next was a waiting game for the other person or the demon itself (in this case, her, it was all her) to reach a stage in their relationship where their feelings were mutual, in a way that one cannot tell one's love from the other's, that's when Equilibrium happened. The demon stole heat away, the opposite remains cold for a few seconds before the demon returned the stolen warmth with a bit of its own while keeping some of the opposite's signifying eternal unity._

_Unless the opposite was any species of demon, they would have noticed as it occurred. Naruto didn't and she thanked every sacred spirit for it. She wasn't sure she could deal with trying to explain that they were demon married without either of them realizing it._

_"I wonder how Naruto would feel about it."_

_She growled, her mouth throbbing. "Don't tell him!"_

_Sasuke shook his head. "Put your fangs away we're in public."_

_Hatsue reluctantly forced the displayed canines out of sight with another wave of ache in her gums. This was never going to be a painless task. _

_"I can't wait until you're demon married to someone you can't stand. Like Sakura."_

_"It won't be Sakura. I checked."_

_"I can't believe you checked."_

_"Wouldn't you?"_

_"Well, now I don't hold it against you. Wait, did you check Ino?"_

_He said nothing._

_"Is it Ino? I could approve of Ino."_

_He shrugged. "Guess we'll never know."_

* * *

Someone yanked at her arm. She didn't budge. She clutched the cold body to hers wishing it could steal away the warmth from hers and jumpstart his heart, but she felt death and death wasn't kind.

So the tears spilled. One by one, and cascaded like gentle raindrops across his pallid face.

She watched and waited—numb to the unfolding scene of panicking mutants determined to remove her from the scene—clinging to an impossible hope. The only hope she felt could steal away the sadness bearing down on her.

Another hard tug at her arm brought her back. The facility building was crumbling from the inside out, shaken by a powerful shockwave that cracked the ground as residue dropped all around her. It didn't seem the ground would stop shaking, not until the building imploded with everyone inside and she knew she needed to get out.

She refused to budge despite the desperate woman's insistence. She wouldn't move for her.

"Leave the woman and go! She's completely useless now!" barked a male from the opposite side of a gaping hole. "She can't serve her purpose now!"

"But our orders were—"

"Fuck our orders—"

The floor shifted and the walls creaked under pressure, heavy chunks of ceiling rained down over the mutants making it difficult for anyone to maneuver their way towards the closest exit. They scattered like chickens with their heads chopped off knowing it would be too troublesome to get trapped under the destruction.

Hatsue thought of running too. She imagined it was better than the alternative. She wouldn't have the strength or the drive to dig herself out from under the rubble because the guilt taking root in her chest disagreed with any counterargument she had to the events that had transpired.

She should have reacted fast enough to stop Naruto from intervening. He should have been her first priority. There were a thousand ways she could have stopped this from happening, but that didn't matter anymore. She should have thought of them from the start. This shouldn't have happened.

She felt she should have been angry—furious because he decided to infiltrate the facility with all odds against him. He was human. He should have been thinking about himself…but when did he think about himself? When did he ever stop to think this mission might result in his death? Never. Everyone automatically took priority over himself and she hated that he did it.

Hatsue snapped out it. If she allowed herself to be buried under the wreckage as a punishment, she would be doing the exact opposite of what he wanted. She needed to get out. That was it.

Bits of debris fell over her head as she returned to her feet with Naruto in her arms and jumped across the gaping hole in the center of the hallway growing wider with every harsh aftershock.

She landed too close to the edge and struggled to regain her balance, lunging her weight forward when she heard the sound of scrapping metal above her and the ceiling came crashing down on her.

* * *

**( **_Part II_ **)**

* * *

_Sasuke's brother acted as though he might have been expecting them after opening the front door to his second floor apartment in a complex situated in the center of a residential area. The trek took a turn for the worst when they stepped into the nearest station to find it overflowing with mutant guards that chased them for hours until they shook them off by diverting their attention elsewhere. It took the extremity of Sasuke attacking several civilians to leave a trail for them to follow while she acted as a distraction. Since public transportation ended up being synonymous with capture, they walked to the next town over until they were on the brink of exhaustion, starving, and most likely dehydrated._

_"Can I have a cup of water?" she asked dumbly._

_Sasuke grabbed her by the arm and steered her past the threshold, allowing his longhaired brother the time to shut the door before one neighbor exited his apartment._

_"Have you had breakfast?" asked Sasuke's brother._

_At the mention of food, Hatsue grew excited, but Sasuke squeezed her arm in warning and she let the smile on her face vanish. She tried to treat the man before her warily because she trusted Sasuke and believed in his judgment, but they were in a place where he, himself, considered safe enough to present as the next step to what would be the start of the rest of their lives on the run. She thought this would be the perfect opportunity to relax, and she needed a minute where she didn't have to worry whether or not they were going to run into the mutants in the next turn or if people reported them to the hotlines appearing on every television screen._

_"We need shelter and food for the day," Sasuke said tersely. "I also need you to get access to my inheritance and a list of every facility currently in construction in Japan."_

_His brother sighed and welcomed them into his home, introducing himself to her as Uchiha Itachi. She presented herself and tried to apologize for Sasuke's behavior when he pinched her into silence and she threatened to paw at him with her bare hands, an insult that sounded less inappropriate if his brother understood the context of it. She didn't mean for it to make her out to be a pervert for Sasuke, as nice looking as he was she had zero attraction for him and that feeling was mutual._

_Despite the deceiving pleasantness of the situation, Sasuke tensed and remained apprehensive whenever exposed to his brother's presence and she felt tempted to read his emotions without his permission to sate the curious side of her persona. She put the temptation behind her and proceeded to behave as they were directed through the short entrance hallway and into a wider room where her eyes went directly to the huge aquarium installed along the wall to her left._

_She swept past them immediately and stood before the glass enthralled by the coral reef packed in the center, but more so by the strangely shaped fish swimming about the blue waters. _

_Itachi said something before stepping into a hallway and Sasuke walked up next to her._

_"Unicorn fish," he told her. "My brother was a marine biologist."_

_Hatsue grimaced, staring at the odd horn protruding from between their eyes. "This is false advertisement."_

_"You said you'd do anything for a unicorn."_

_"The mystical creature, not a fish with a glued on horn. I wanted a pure white pony with a sparkling horn," she admitted. "When do you ever hear the word 'unicorn' and think of a fish? Never."_

_He smirked._

_She felt like she had too many questions on the subject of his brother. Itachi was polite and serious, but he didn't seem like a bad person. He looked willing to accommodate them for the day and comply with Sasuke's demands, but she hated that her instinct was beginning to nag at her._

_"Did you see anything…?" she asked quietly._

_Sasuke stared into the tank of unicorn fish for a lengthy stretch of time before speaking. "We will be safe here through the night, only here and only today," he said. "If we arrived any other day on any other hour the outcome would have shifted."_

_She exhaled deeply, following a smaller unicorn fish with her eyes. She pointed it out from between a group of larger fish. "I want that one."_

_"You can't have a fish."_

_"I want everything I can't have and you know it. Don't tease me." _

_She bumped her elbow to his arm and laughed. The accidental skin contact allowed her to delve into his emotions and in the deep recesses of cool energy and overpowering suspicion, she found a hint of amusement. Her comment amused him and she felt prouder about how well they were getting along given the circumstances._

_The two turned at the sound of footsteps and tensed until Itachi came into view with towels and fresh clothes. "I am stepping out of the apartment to settle the issue with your inheritance," he said, staring directly at Sasuke. He glimpsed in her direction. "Treat this as your home. There is a window to the end of the hallway behind me that leads into the street if the facility's Unwanted track you here." From his pocket, he procured an envelope protruding with money. "If I'm not back by then, take this. It should sustain you for a while if you can moderate your expenses."_

_"Can I have a unicorn fish?" asked Hatsue, earning a glare from her traveling companion. "What? I want a unicorn fish."_

_"Do you even know how to take care of one?"_

_"There's always Google."_

_"You can't have one," Sasuke strained._

_"Take the small one," said Itachi. He then pointed to a row of drawers underneath the aquarium. "There's a net in that drawer and a tank under the sink you can take."_

_She took the towel and clothes he offered, brushing her palm against his hand. There was guilt—a deep-rooted guilt that made her uncomfortable enough to turn away awkwardly, thanking him beneath her breath. She decided to make it like a ghost and disappear before Sasuke gave her a demanding look that sucked all the information out of her. She walked straight into the bathroom after asking where to find it, belatedly remembering to thank Itachi for the fish even though something told her that he knew she used her demon powers on him. _

_She felt embarrassed all the way into the bathroom and once there she finally dispelled the breath she had been holding. _

_She heard pieces of a conversation while marveling at the idea of being in a clean bathroom._

"…to talk…"

"I don't."

_The firm response belonged to Sasuke._

_She turned the water on and let the sound drown out their talk. _

_Hatsue exited the bathroom after a nice shower and found Sasuke watching the news block on television. She slinked closer to him and touched the side of his face._

_He flinched. He was angry._

_"If you're moody all the time, you'll get wrinkles."_

_He smacked her hand away. "Stop abusing your abilities."_

_"We can take the money and go, he gave us that option. Give me a map and I'll find us a place to stay, somewhere with decent plumbing."_

_"No."_

_She clambered onto a seat on the back of the couch and stared absently at the screen. The news anchor was going on about their recent sightings._

_"I wish they would've picked a better photo of me," she sighed. "That one's awful."_

_"Be glad nobody from the school submitted anything from junior year."_

_"You would say that and you think I'd let you get away with it because I'm starting to like you, but I won't." She slid down the couch over the cushions and stared at the screen upside down as surveillance camera footage of her came on screen depicting the time she stole a pink gem bracelet from a department store to go with the rose diamond necklace she wore. "Are we allowed to use the phone? The hotline number is coming on and I want to give them a tip."_

_Sasuke reached over to the phone sitting on the coffee table and put it in her hand._

_She memorized the number a while ago, but she liked to see the numbers on the screen blaring like a death sentence. Soon as she dialed, a phone operator answered with a bunch of customary babble and asked for her tip. She hyperventilated into the phone, going on and on about the two little old women that were attacked by the boy on the screen._

_"He came out of nowhere!" she raved. "He came like a thief in the night, swept in and attacked them. I tried to run but I was paralyzed and I couldn't for the life of me scream! It was awful! He didn't see me but I've seen where he's gone with his beautiful lady friend!"_

_She gave directions towards the back alley of a fast food restaurant and described herself and Sasuke in great detail. She was thanked for the information and the line went dead._

_She chortled; thoroughly amused by the operator's response, but sometimes it felt as though they did something terrible. She understood that they nearly killed over a hundred humans at school, but they didn't ask to awaken to their demon DNA in that instant. Everything they did from then on was to survive. Sure, they attacked a few people and left them with teeth marks, but they never killed a person. Their mutant pursuers increased their body count by the day and they took the credit. The amount of attention they were receiving was at national level and the only reason they hadn't been caught was that they were slowly learning how to mask the demon in them. Masquerading as humans took a lot of energy from them and it wasn't good to exhaust themselves so much when they lacked proper sustenance to make regenerating easier._

_Sasuke left his seat and headed for the bathroom._

_Itachi returned five minutes later with food. She thanked him and dug through the paper bag for the fattest burger inside. She appreciated that he had the sense to bring four of everything. She had the right appetite for that._

_"I didn't know Sasuke had any friends," he said, watching her eat in awe._

_"I didn't either," she answered. She stuffed fries into her mouth._

_"The facility won't stop searching for either one of you," he reminded her gravely. "You are the only female of the same race and together you are the only pureblooded demons. There have been others Unwanted in their grasps, but they aren't like you. Horned demons are hard to come by; purebloods are one in a million. You aren't safe here."_

_"We're smart, I'm sure we'll figure it out," she said with a shrug. "You know, you seem to know an awful lot about the facility, eh?"_

_Not a millisecond passed before his serious answer. "I work for the facility."_

_Her stomach twisted into knots, but when he offered his hand for her to touch, she sensed no ill will. No matter how deep she dug, he meant them no harm and every bit of anxiety disappeared._

* * *

"What year did I lose my virginity?"

The voice sounded distantly as if she stood on the receiving end of an echo about to die out, but she recognized it. The tenor was a tad rough around the edges and somewhat raspy.

"How the hell should I know? Seventy-nine?"

The second voice made her heart clench.

"How old do you think I am, you idiot?"

Hatsue felt her head lolling and a heat radiating to her body, tightening around her like a strong embrace. She willed her eyes to open, but the weight of her exhaustion dismissed the command and though the sound of interactions enveloped her, she refused to let sleep take hold of her. She remembered everything that happened in broken pieces, all cluttered into a desk without a final picture to construct them properly. She recalled a heavy weight on her back that crushed her into something jagged that pierced her skin and a constant pain—one that faded with death and returned with life. She lived in torment for several agonizing hours until she stayed dead long enough to feel nothing.

She felt nothing now.

_Is this death?_

Her own voice echoed through the emptiness of her mind.

_'You're alive, Hatsue.'_

That wasn't Hinata talking back to her.

She always loved the way he whispered her name, rolled underneath his deep voice, in a way that melted butter and turned chocolate into fudge. The way he uttered it in her ear like a forbidden secret with his arms wrapped around her and his lips pressed to the side of her head.

It made her heart weep because Uzumaki Naruto was dead and it was only his voice she wanted. Not a cheap imitation her subconscious conjured up to make her feel better and it worked. She hated how it worked.

New emotion bloomed in her chest and crawled out to the rest of her, liberating her from every worry weighing down her heart. A sting of sadness remained, one refusing to let her enjoy the tranquility of this dream-like state.

Darkness came, but the voices remained and she slept like the dead for so long that when she finally opened her eyes she was still in the dream. A familiar mocha, cinnamon scent lingered in the room reminding her of her aunt's home with its colorful walls and wooden frames and the memory of baked goods on the kitchen table that made her drool.

She remembered being surrounded by her younger sisters. Three little black-haired girls running around her begging her to stay longer to play this or that, to help with math problems here and there, all their small voices coming together until she sorted her time to do something for them. She recalled all the time she spent helping Tomo study for her exams, testing her on flashcards and forcing her to memorize all the mathematical formulas she didn't think she would need. How Saiko, who always liked to draw, wanted someone to draw with her even though Hatsue was terrible at it, she seemed to like looking at her stick figures and listening to the strange backstory she gave ever terrible drawing. And then there was Aya who like to be chased up and down the staircase and babied until someone shouted at them to stop being noisy.

The shadows fell across the familiar room she called her own in her aunt's place. She lay atop the comfortable mattress, swallowed up in the warmth of smooth sheets and fluffy coverlets. She found an empty desk and a dresser full of clothes that probably didn't fit her anymore, yet she was dressed in loose cotton pants and an oversized sweater that slid off her shoulder when she propped up her upper body.

She inhaled deeply, the air crisp and cold in her lungs. Long strands of damp hair slid off her shoulder and it smelled surprisingly pleasant, of tangerines with a dash of vanilla. The clothes on her were clean and didn't hold that sterile, lemon scent the ones from the facility had, these carried a sweetened one that reminded her of home and the possibility that this may not be a dream.

Slowly, she returned her head to the feathered pillow. She turned on her stomach and someone shifted at her side. She looked over her shoulder to the person underneath the coverlet and she expected Aya. She was the only sister she imagined would be the one next to her if this was her aunt's house and she smiled at the thought as she reached out to touch her shoulder when she moved a second time. A strong arm wrapped around her waist and a sweltering heat passed through her, suffocating her. She thought of burrowing under that heat and hoped to continue sleeping like the dead.

_Wait—_she didn't remember any of her sisters having strong arms. Also, she wasn't aware she could steal this much heat from a person without killing them and whoever was lying next to her seemed perfectly asleep, which led her to believe whoever was sleeping next to her wasn't one of her three younger sisters and that he or she (most likely he) wasn't human. This was probably a nightmare or the result of having spent an entire day overindulging in alcohol and the one-night stand to go with it, so maybe everything that happened in the facility was the actually nightmare and she finally woke up from it.

If the world decided to give awards for cumbersome personality traits, she was certain her optimism and denial could win big. Or maybe it would be her delusion that would win some recognition.

She thought, for a second, that she probably imagined the warmth. Without the extra thoughts plaguing her head, she came to a dubious conclusion. Only Naruto felt that warm. Only he set her insides ablaze with the smallest physical contact and if this was a dream created from sadness, she welcomed herself to enjoy it. She refused to revisit that sorrow.

She twisted around and closed her eyes, slowly exhaling. She hoped not to wake from this dream.

* * *

Hatsue peeled open her eyes, a narrow strip of light fell across the strange room piercing through the night gloom and the heat that nourished her throughout the days she spent unconscious was missing. She searched beneath the covers and her surroundings for some form of proving someone had slept beside her, but she found nothing.

She left the room and crept down the staircase to find water. She drank until refreshed and stood in a stranger's kitchen thoroughly confused about how she managed to make it from being buried under the facility enduring the slow torture of death to experience it endlessly thanks to her immortality. She could have sworn she had been in the room she had at her aunt's house, but this wasn't a house that held any memories for her. This was a stranger's lair. The kitchen was all white and steel with high ceilings and it overlooked an unfurnished living area with windows that overlooked an empty street lit by iron streetlamps.

The possibility of this being a nightmare remained high. She stayed calm as she made her slow ascent up the stairs to every other room up and down the hall to discover that hers was the only area furnished. She returned to the room where she woke up. Someone returned to bed before she did and she willed herself forward to uncover the mystery of the guest in her bed.

She slowly drew the coverlet back and found Naruto underneath.

_A dream, _she thought bitterly and fell into a seat beside him. Her disappointment was too much to bear. _This is a dream._

She stared at him long, hard, and determined. She wouldn't mind if this was a dream, not if it meant he lived.

She didn't know how long she had slept, but she wanted to continue and returned to her place beside him. This time she wrapped her arm around him and settled into place with her forehead pressed to his back. He moved, his hand falling onto hers and her heart thundered in her chest.

She struggled to sleep and stayed awake for hours wondering when her heart might stop thumping so loudly. She couldn't stop thinking her thousand questions or debating on whether or not this was a dream when everything about it seemed so vivid, but she remembered hearing the bullets soaring in the air and piercing through his flesh. She felt the heat leave his body and his heart stop as he died in her arms. She held him close unable to stop her emotions from going cold and she sat there in the silence of her sadness wishing for the end until a new resolve propelled her forward.

She remembered that she didn't make it out; crushed under the weight of several floors she lay in an endless cycle of torture. The pinching in her chest growing severe every time life bloomed in her body until she felt a pointed edge stabbing into her dead heart repeatedly—over and over until it killed her. The ache was palpable now.

Outside, someone brayed with laughter and she startled.

Naruto jolted, yawning audibly as the chorus of strange laughter grew louder and he tried to move. His hand grabbed her wrist and whined. "Hatsue, loosen your grip…"

She drew her hand, the action made him jolt a second time and he twisted around to face her. "You're awake?"

She nodded.

He gathered her in his arms and crushed her against him. There was Equilibrium, the perfect balance between hot and cold between two people destined to be together. She had a thought. Would it always be this way? Or would it become so natural she would never noticed it again? She didn't mind it now. It made her feel good, but her instinct was nagging. She didn't want to listen.

She needed good. Naruto was good.

She didn't plan to deny it.

Hatsue spent ten years going in and out of the facility, each time her memories were altered to exclude Uzumaki Naruto, and during those times she experienced different relationships with different men. Some were lust driven, some purely emotional, others reached new levels—moving in together, discussing marriage, speaking of children—but every one of her relationships had one thing in common, they were lacking something. She was lacking something. She always picked up her things and left because there was something missing and it didn't have a name…not until her memories came rushing back.

She could think of a life with him and while it wouldn't be eternal, it would be perfect. But the fact that he was alive raised a red flag. She didn't believe it. This was a dream.

The emotions she stole from him through contact filled her; his genuine happiness eased the tension in her muscles. She didn't know why she expected a different reaction.

She refused to allow the moment to sweep her away and gently pushed against his chest. She sat with her back pressed against the headboard and once again marveled at the empty, spacious room. She scratched the itch on her shoulder, unsure where to begin with her questions. _I'm dreaming. He's dead._

Naruto sat cross-legged on top of the coverlet, lips pressed together. "You plan on staying quiet; you're usually more unreasonable than that."

"No…I just don't know where to start," Hatsue admitted.

He unconsciously pulled a pillow into his lap and leaned forward on it. "Well…you're not dreaming." He reached to pinch her arm and she felt a prick of pain. "See? That hurt a bit."

She furrowed her eyebrows. "Did you just pinch me?"

"What's with that face?"

"I barely felt it."

"Then why are you complaining?"

"I just feel you could do better."

"I'm not doing it again."

She pinched him, earning a harsh look followed by his retaliation. This time she definitely felt the pinch. She rubbed the tender skin, staring at him accusingly. "That hurt! What's wrong with you?"

"I was proving a point!"

"What point?"

"Do you know how tough your crocodile skin is?"

She touched her skin for some form of reassurance and sent him into peals of laughter.

Hatsue pulled his t-shirt up in search of bullet wounds. She found nothing. And when she pressed her hand to his chest, she discovered a heartbeat.

_Alive_.

"Why are you alive?" she asked. "_How_ are you alive?"

He grinned. "I told you I was immune."

"We're the same?"

"Not the same…really, but yeah, we're alike. I don't die."

"What about senior year when you dropped like the rest of the students when me and Sasuke started running?" she demanded.

"I was taken by surprise. I've never been around a horned demon until I met you and Sasuke," he replied. "I knew you were a demon, I just didn't know you were that kind…"

"Why did you trail off there? Do you have a problem with me being what I am?"

"No, I was just surprised. It's rude to ask so I never did."

"Rude to ask?"

"Yeah, it's rude to ask what type of demon you are."

"So I can't ask you?"

"You can, but I can't tell you."

"Why?"

"I'm not allowed to say, it's a stupid thing. You have to figure it out."

"Bird demon?"

"You're asking now?"

Reminded that there were other things more important to address, she redirected her attention, "Oh, right…sidetracked." She lifted her eyes from the pillow on his lap to his face, battling her own confusion. She could pretend everything was fine, but at the end of the day, this was making her feel very confused. "What happened since then? I want to think I have an idea since I was sure we were with my aunt…I remember being in my room. So, where are we now?"

"Mirai's place would be the first place they checked," he answered. "We got there three days after a facility representative stopped by to search the place, so we were safe for the first three nights. There were mutants snooping around the following morning and I decided to relocate. The others are fine."

She nodded dumbly. "How long have I been sleeping? Did you drug me?"

"It takes longer to recover when you die multiple times in a row," he replied. "Your ability to regenerate slowed."

She tilted her head quizzically. _And what about you?_ She remembered being in a situation where, although, she planned to keep his body safe from further damage she blacked out as soon as the facility literally fell on her head.

"I woke up in a nook underground," Naruto said as if he read the question in her mind. "That hole that opened underground helped because it collected debris and that cushioned my fall."

_Did I say that out loud?_

"No."

She left her seat. He answered her question. She asked herself that question. She didn't say that one, not out loud, she thought it. She dramatically paced around the room, casting glances in his direction as if in question. She figured an explanation wouldn't be a terrible thing, but she didn't know how to go about addressing it without feeling crazier than the last couple of weeks had.

She stopped. "Hinata spent a lot of time in my head…"

"It's a demon thing."

"Can I do it?"

"No."

"Then it's not a demon thing."

"Hinata is the same species of demon as I am," he told her.

She felt unreasonably curious as she returned to her place on the bed. "Where are we now?"

"I bought a house."

"Isn't that too obvious?"

"I bought a house a year ago."

She opened her mouth then closed it. She reconsidered her initial question because Naruto wouldn't put her in danger. Wherever this house was it meant safety.

She expected herself to have a stronger reaction to Naruto's confession, but she imagined there must have been a reason why he never told her about his demon roots. She didn't want to drill him about it or get angry that he didn't trust her enough to tell her. She didn't doubt him.

Naruto reached out to touch her hand and the only emotion running through him was relief and joy born from it.

"You're in my head again," she accused.

"It's really hard to stay out of your head. Kinda like you can't stop yourself from absorbing emotions. It feels like I'm thinking your thoughts."

She squeezed his hand. "That is so creepy," she whispered with a small smile. "Please tell me you know it's creepy."

"Creepier than what you do on a daily basis?"

"I accept that nobody's my type of creepy, but you and Hinata are on a whole other level."

"I can turn it off to other people. It's not like I'm in everyone's head all the time," he said defensively. "It's just when you're around that it happens. If we're on the same wavelength, I can't tune you out."

"I'm going to start a club with Inuzuka, the _'My Significant Other Can't Stay Outta My Head' _club," she joked, feeling his amusement and a dose of exhaustion. "We'll begin protests against you both."

She looked to the digital clock on the floor. It was too late to be up for someone that hadn't been on her sleep schedule, so she called it a night. She waited for him to get comfortable before sliding in beside him, comforted by the heat radiating from him and the arm he wrapped around her because as convinced as she was that this was a dream, there was no denying this.

He was alive. He was alive and she was free.

_Where do we go from here…?_

* * *

Hatsue was the first to wake in the morning. She wandered downstairs in search of caffeine, but was disappointed to find none, not even a coffee machine. The only kitchen appliance in the entire place was a toaster. A microwave would have been a better choice, but she figured all Naruto needed in life was a kettle and a life supply of instant ramen to survive in the world. The refrigerator looked sad with nothing but a slim bottle of milk and cheese. She appreciated the carton of pistachio ice cream in the freezer, but in the end, she left the kitchen without breakfast.

She ventured out of the house in search of a donut shop or a convenience store in her search for caffeine. That morning she woke up feeling as though she had been surrounded by tombstones nursing a hangover again and she needed to kick start her day.

She returned home to a panicking Naruto with coffee and breakfast. "What?"

"Why would you leave without telling me?" he demanded.

She dropped a white paper bag on the kitchen counter and took a deep drink from her coffee. "I came back."

He let out a frustrated sound. "That's not the point."

"Settle down," she eased, leaning against the nearest counter. "I took precautions." She wore sunglasses and a baseball cap. "The only person I talked to was for directions and it took a while to get to the convenience store and back. I figured you'd still be asleep and that I could bribe you with donuts. I still plan on bribing you with donuts."

"You're not bribing me with anything," he said stubbornly. "Are you stupid or something? Someone could have still recognized you even with glasses and a hat!"

Hatsue sifted through the paper bag and pulled out a glazed donut. She waved it in front of him before taking a bite. "It's really good."

He didn't plan to drop the subject and questioned her sanity next. She responded the same by taking several bites out of her donut until she finished it and her coffee and he exhausted himself.

"Just wake me up next time," he conceded.

She didn't see what difference it would make, but nodded.

He sat down with a glass of milk and ate her bribe.

"How long are we staying here?" asked Hatsue, standing in the middle of the living area imagining what the house might look like furnished. She imagined it would be a comfortable home and maybe it was a tad presumptuous to see herself living here with him.

Naruto took her by surprise when he wrapped his arms around her and kissed the side of her face. "The facility will find out about it eventually so it's better for us to keep moving, but we can come back."

"I have a question."

"What?"

"Would we have weird hybrid babies?"

"Ah…no, they would either be like you or like me."

She wanted all of them to be like Naruto.

"We're going to have a problem if I want all them to be like you," he said, resting his chin on her shoulder.

"You're in my head again," she said smiling. "They could be very sarcastic—"

"Or loud mouthed?" he finished.

Hatsue turned around to face him and rested her hands on his shoulders. "It feels a bit strange that I have these feelings for you now," she admitted. "After they made me forget them, my head's been like a scrambled egg, but since I was inside the facility…everything's come back and I feel more like an asshole than I do on a daily basis."

He kissed her slowly and it did mysterious things to her. "Good."

She closed her eyes and felt their emotions meld into one intense cluster of feeling in the pit of her stomach. It no longer felt real. She pulled away to breathe and stared into his blue eyes with set curiosity, questioning whether or not she was beginning to imagine things. They were safe here and when it would be time to move, they would move. His presence might be the thing fooling her into believing that they were safe and she sensed her suspicion would become a problem.

"I made sure we were okay," he assured. "I promise."

"I'm naturally suspicious," she said, then shook her head. She draped her arms over his neck and pressed his mouth to hers, deepening the initial kiss to clear her head. She wanted to drown in the heat of his body. "Forget it. I don't want to think about it. I just want to kiss you for the rest of the morning."

He smiled against her lips, his hands on the small of her back. "My afternoon is also free."

She gave him a teasing smile after drawing back. "We can do more than that…" she trailed off purposefully and stepped towards the staircase, leading him by the hand.

Naruto swept her onto his shoulder and took the stairs two at a time in his enthusiasm. Her back hit the plush mattress and his body flattened her against it, his mouth quick to find hers.

The first kiss eliminated the thoughts from her head; the second pulsed through her in a way that reminded her of loud, thumping music, and the third filled her with doubt. She closed up and he noticed the difference in her demeanor immediately. He seated himself and she tried to push through the sudden swell of uncertainty standing between herself and the desire, but he stopped her.

"This never happens," she confessed, staring down to where his body sat between her legs. She lifted her eyes to him. "I swear this never happens. I'm unusually good in these situations." She needed to stop talking. At his nod, she shied away from a sarcastic remark, "Sorry, I'll stop now."

"You're thinking too much."

She untangled their bodies and rolled onto her stomach, face buried in a pillow.

Everything seemed too good to be true and she was suspicious about it. She didn't hate it. She loved the development of things. It was so easy being around Naruto after adjusting to her memories because it wasn't just her demon instinct telling her he was the one, but a feeling deep down inside her that supported that claim.

Naruto rubbed her back and audibly sighed.

She felt so impotent and useless and disappointing she didn't think she could face him without being reminded that she couldn't have sex with him because it didn't feel real. Nothing in this seemingly perfect moment felt real, not even half the words she said or her desire or his sudden revelation as a demon. She didn't ask to be suspicious. She didn't ask to be anything at all.

* * *

**( **_Part III_ **)**

* * *

_Strange movement outdoors shook her from slumber. She stared into the pitch-black engulfing the small room and waited in its silence for the scene to unfold. Her instinct alerted immediate danger and if it were able to control her mind, it would have tossed her out of the comfort of her bed and onto the ground to force her into motion. But she didn't want to move. _

_After that afternoon's conversation with Sasuke's brother, she had a sour taste in her mouth. She understood why Sasuke avoided the suggestion like the plague because his brother was a valued member of the facility. His genius didn't just lie in marine biology, that was certain, and he was approached by the mysterious facility leader to join their ranks as they searched for otherworldly beings trying to live among them. He admitted to have been drawn by the intrigue and the possibility of uncovering the truth of the world's inhabitants, but it was his curiosity that led to him discovering his little brother was one of the rare Unwanted the facility wanted._

_Throughout the conversation, Hatsue wanted Itachi to stop talking to her because Sasuke's hearing capability was around ten times better than hers and he wouldn't like anyone speaking about him under any circumstances (even if you were his brother), so she tried not to listen, but she was curious too. If it hadn't been for Itachi, Sasuke wouldn't have known what to do with himself and they would've been prisoners at the facility built specifically for them. She ended up coming off a little standoffish and distracted while secretly appreciating the honesty._

_He didn't need to tell her, but he went on and did it anyways._

_"Sasuke," she called into the darkness. She dropped the volume of her voice to a level where it could easily be masked by a louder sound, she timed the moment with the whoosh of a passing vehicle._

_A door opened quietly and she rose onto a seat. She hurried to take her bag and stuffed her feet into her shoes before peering out the window. Towering shadows scanned the premises, beneath the streetlight glow she saw inhuman men in dark suits walking with their noses in the air like dogs searching for a scent. The entire street was filled by these strange, incomplete demons._

_She closed her eyes and concentrated on expanding the range of her ability. It worked strongest if she touched the person directly, but she discovered if she concentrated well enough she was able to read people's emotions from a distance. It wasn't as strong as if it was skin-to-skin contact where she literally absorbed them and felt them as if they were her own, but these were like a fleeting thought and they helped._

Concentration, passivity, and knowledge_—she sensed they had some deep knowledge of something and that it brought on an emotion that felt a lot like pride except these demons didn't seem to possess the same range of emotions as everyone else. She didn't like them, but she did feel sympathetic towards them. Deep down she did wonder if they minded it or rather, if they understood it wasn't normal that they didn't feel like the rest of the world._

_One huge demon paused directly under her window and caught her staring. _

_It was over._

_Hatsue sprinted to the door at the same time Sasuke pushed it open and she called out to him before the wall behind her exploded with the force of the huge demon's assault. He bulldozed straight at her, but Sasuke grabbed her by the wrist, yanked her out of the room, and pushed her into the hallway. The only emotion running through her read betrayal and anger in their purest forms. There shouldn't have been any reason for them to worry since the area had already been scanned and Itachi was considered such a valued member of the facility team nobody would doubt his word, but the Unwanted mutants were here and it looked bad._

_"It's not his fault," she attempted as he shoved her towards the front door. She looked over her shoulder in the hopes of seeing Itachi for confirmation, but at the same time, she hoped he remained inside, away from the monsters._

_Sasuke shot her a look that left her cold. _

_She faced forward, stowing the conversation away for later, and burst through the door as soon as her shoulder made contact with it. Tugging her backpack over her shoulders, she hopped onto the outer railing of the building and jumped into the street sensing Sasuke wasn't far behind her. She heard him land a second after she did and when he did, they split up, running in opposite directions prepared to run until they lost their persistent hunters._

_Once Hatsue shook them off, she would head for the rendezvous point and wait for Sasuke to show up for as long as twenty-four hours. If he didn't show during the time limit, she would move onto the next rendezvous point discussed and wait longer, but after that she would be on her own. She avoided thinking that far. The maneuvers had worked well for them since they first started to run and they wouldn't fail them today._

_Except today was different because it didn't matter how fast she ran, today spelled out the end from the beginning and she just ignored the persistent nag in the pit of her stomach. _

_Hatsue turned a corner and ran straight into a group of eight giant demons that surrounded her like a pack of wild animals cornering their prey. She stared at them with their unnaturally colored gazes glowing in the dark night contrasting hard against their red, muscled flesh. She eyed the long horns protruding from their temples, standing tall and curving slightly above their heads and the sharp, pointed teeth grinning back at her._

_She took a cautious step back and turned at the sound of heavy footfalls to the sight of similarly gigantic horned males with broad muscled bodies standing side by side as though creating a wall to sandwich her in. Above her, standing on the rooftops of the buildings stood more startling demons in their natural skin, accomplishing what they arrived there to do. Intimidate her._

_"Running won't do you any good," a woman's voice reached her followed by the click of heels on the asphalt. The wall of demons split in half to allow the strange woman into the circle of light. "You may be a pure blooded demon here, but in their world, as you are, you're an infant." She appeared youthful with pale hair and a womanly physique, but spoke in a way reminiscent of someone older and wiser. "Hold her down."_

_Hatsue was shoved into the hard ground without room for reaction time, the asphalt hard and cold against her bruising cheek. She heard the woman approach as she struggled against the vise grip of her captors. The woman crouched down before her holding a syringe in her hand._

_"What is that?" she demanded._

_"Nothing for you to worry about," the woman answered._

_She felt the prick of the needle and the flood of strange liquid. _

_The effects were immediate. Her arms turned heavy and her head spun. One demon pulled her onto her feet and it was difficult to stay up because she couldn't feel her legs. Her eyes struggled to focus on the woman as she pulled a phone from her pocket; the sound of a man reached her ears, distant like an echo, but clear._

_"Uchiha Sasuke has been apprehended."_

_"Kikushita Hatsue is also in custody."_

_Sleep gave a hard tug and she was gone._

* * *

Hatsue pinned her inability to have sex to having slept for so long and he backed off the topic altogether after saying there was a probability her regeneration did more than slow down.

She hoped that the feeling would leave her and things would get better, but they grew worse. She stopped feeling normal and that bred the desperation to uncover a reason. She tampered her uncertainty and worked through the day playing a role in the hopes of fooling Naruto, but it was to no avail. Naruto's level of perception went beyond normal and he saw through every inch of her act, but knew better than to question it unless he was absolutely positive it was starting to wear on her.

It was and she started obsessing on the idea that normal meant this wasn't reality. The problem was that it wasn't a dream either and fantasies never lasted this long to end, so she imagined it to be something completely different. She didn't feel right from the start, the nagging feeling she swore never to ignore again was knocking on ancient bells and singing her warnings at this point and being around Naruto wouldn't fool her into false safety. And she was starting to believe this one was a fake.

Her Naruto was human. He wasn't a demon and he wasn't on the run. And his feelings had always been like a punch in the gut that left her breathless. They were honest and so real she didn't need her ability to feel them.

There was no doubt.

Determined to end this dream-like reality, Hatsue took a knife from a drawer in the kitchen and stared at her reflection on the stainless steel. She remembered Sasuke's harsh bite because it prevented her from submitting to the aphrodisiac. The sheer amount of pain forced her to refocus her attention on it than on the poison running in her bloodstream. It gave her a long enough distraction to build up a defense towards it and she wanted it to happen again this time.

She wasn't sure what she was defending against, but if her instinct was begging for attention when it normally quieted around Naruto, she would listen to it. The question was how much pain she needed to cause the out of body experience to end.

She sighed at the knife in her hand and laid out her other hand over the kitchen counter. _This is going to hurt…_

Hatsue stabbed the knife straight through her hand and cursed at the top of her lungs. She didn't think any of this through and she wasn't willing to stab herself a second time to prove her point. Her hand throbbed around the invasive metal and blood flooded freely from the wound. It hurt so badly she couldn't stand up straight as she reached to jiggle the handle.

"What the hell are you doing?" called Naruto from the staircase, striding towards her as quickly as possible.

"The knife fell on my hand," she bit out, carving against her flesh so the throbbing doubled.

Naruto wrapped his hand around hers and the handle. She felt nothing. No emotion. There was her confirmation. The crazy plan worked. So, instead of letting him uncork the knife from her hand, she ripped her hand from it and didn't stay around long enough to feel the pain.

All feeling she experience in that moment was replaced by one of falling and in the new darkness that shielded her eyes, she started to hear the sound of machinery all around her.

Hatsue opened her eyes as she took a sharp breath and she was blinded by fluorescent lights.

.

.

.

**( **_...t__o be continued..._ **)**


	5. The Doctor

**xl note**: This is my put-things-in-perspective chapter, so please enjoy me putting things in perspective...or confusing you more.

This is important, this chapter takes place before Hatsue wakes from her dream and it's...it's something. I hope you enjoy it. I reveal more demons/mutants and species...so this is really building up to be something, well, you'll see when you read it. Also, this starts off somewhat innocently like the first chapter of the series and turns into something completely different.

Also, many thanks to **YamiKitsuneKami**, **Aeryan**,** Aries01xD**, **mikkakaus**, **mikethepokemaster**, **xXChirushiXx**, and **vrykolakas Princess **for dropping a review. The fact that you've enjoyed it thus far makes it worth the trouble this story puts me through.

* * *

**All I Wanted** – The Doctor

_"My boy builds coffins for the rich and the poor_

_Kings and queens have all knocked on his door_

_Beggars and liars, gypsies and thieves_

_They all come to him 'cause he's so eager to please."_

_- _**Florence + The Machine**, _"My Boy Builds Coffins"_

* * *

**( **_Part I_ **)**

* * *

Yakushi Kabuto fronted the secret search for Kikushita Hatsue among the facility's ruins. Ten mutants scoured the mountainous remains, lifting the broken pieces and digging further down the center where she was last seen mourning the death of her human soul mate. Since the facility came crashing to the ground, its director and coordinators were forced to make changes, many he didn't agree with, which had brought him back to this scene.

When the earthquakes had hit the facility harder, Kabuto had connected the surveillance system to his tablet and through the salvageable data was able to identify their intruders: Hinata Hyuga and Inuzuka Kiba. Since the collapse, Hinata, Kiba, and Uchiha Sasuke had been apprehended by the Lotus Facility Trackers due to one mutant's unique ability. The trio had been his superiors' first priority due to the worth of two peculiar species of demon, and thus a Kitsune and Inugami were now in their possession, which presented the possibility of a larger pool of demons that went beyond the known races of Oni and Unwanted demon. It would only be a matter of time before they discovered new demons…and the possibilities would be endless.

However, on the subject of Kikushita Hatsue, he had met with some dissent. She once played a valuable role in the facility's grand scheme of things, but now she was lost with her mate dead and she wouldn't be able to do what was required of her. Kabuto had thought it was too unfortunate to leave the only living Unwanted demon female buried under all the broken things, so he had decided to dig her up and deliver her to the site of the temporary facility. He'd willingly take the backlash for his insubordination; even he could choose to keep her a secret. It sounded better than the admitting to rescuing her when it hadn't been asked of him. Eventually the demolished building would be rebuilt and Kikushita would be immobilized the only way they knew how, buried alive.

Late afternoon brought on an unrelenting heat. The sky gradually dimmed, casting the surrounding farmlands in an orange overlay. After hours of searching for signs of life in a mountain of rubble, the mutants reached ground level and found a gaping hole in the center of the marble floors, breaking apart at the edges.

"Yakushi-sensei, I see her now," a mutant called, throwing a giant metal beam into a stack of discarded pieces.

Kabuto reached the edge and peered in. He saw her slumped over more fallen chunks, having been trapped under the heavy weight enduring a continuous death until it induced a long sleep. Blood spilled from the open wound in her chest endlessly and it looked to be too dangerous an injury to leave untreated, so he ordered the man lifting her from the bloody grave to be careful and another to prepare to donate blood.

He fixed up a transfusion once Hatsue was safely lying flat on what remained of the courtyard using a long tube to connect her to her donator and focused his attention on closing the wounds to fool her head into believing she was already on the mend and accelerating the healing.

"Yakushi-sensei!" another mutant called, voice echoing from the bottom of the hole. "There is a human here!"

"Bring the human," he ordered passively.

Needless to say, Uzumaki Naruto was not the human he expected to see lying on the floor nor did he think to find a pulse, but there it was, the weakening heartbeat of someone desperate to live. He lived through the pain of several embedded bullets in his chest and he owed it to landing in a cushioned area below the upturned ground, protected from the fallen residue by a pair of bent metal beams lodged in the earth.

However, his survival was beyond peculiar, the mere thought of it unnerved him.

He had interviewed the mutant guards that had attempted to apprehend Hatsue and all reports had lined up perfectly. Hatsue had lost her will after the death of her soul mate and demons seldom mistook their instinct. If it told her he died, he did, and if the faintest trace of life remained, she'd ensure it would not be extinguished. Demons were guided by an instinct and unlike human intuition, it never failed, but then again, most demons weren't drugged on aphrodisiacs and tranquilizers during critical moments (or so he assumed in the case of pureblooded beings such as Kikushita and Uchiha).

"Bring him too, and be careful not to kill him."

He didn't like undiscovered mysteries and he secretly wanted the man's salvation to become a possibility despite the severity of the wounds because it meant Hatsue's survival. He was curious to see the turnout, hoping it to be amusing and worth the trouble his actions were bound to bring him.

* * *

_Kikushita Hatsue and Uchiha Sasuke stuck out like sore thumbs in a sea of horned mutant strangers. The two were young and lovely and rare. He understood the difference between the two and the rest the instant his eyes fell upon them from his place on the platform beside the man who introduced him to the Lotus Facility and the woman that was to become his superior. _

_He had spent untold hours learning the daunting building, familiarizing with members of the staff, reading up on the research material, and memorizing the names and faces of his competition—other recently graduated students vying for the physician opening._

_Yakushi Kabuto figured he had enough connections to guarantee his place among the staff, but he decided against overconfidence this time since he would be working directly under Tsunade rather than Orochimaru, the scientist that recommended him for the residency. Although, he initially planned for this to be just that, a residency, the new arrivals made enough of the difference. It was a foreign change in him, but it wasn't as bad as it was unexpected._

_He read Kikushita Hatsue and Uchiha Sasuke's reports from the start. The Lotus Facility had spent the last several months attempting to locate them after Kikushita came into her powers far earlier than the scientists had anticipated. Unbeknownst to her, she had been on their radar from the moment she first felt ill as it had become mandatory by law since the first horned demon incident that revealed others of demon origin to the government. It normally took half a year before the reaction occurred and by then, a horde of mutants would be ready to capture and drag the new mutant to the nearest army base, but she had surprised them. She had proved to be stronger and of a rarer breed when her awakening forced Uchiha Sasuke into the limelight and from then onward, they had run. Together they had evaded the facility at every turn and it had come to the point that scientists begun suspecting the two were running on something other than mere instinct or else they might have resign to believe that someone was aiding them, but with time, their first theory was proven right._

_Sometime while chasing the teenagers, the scientists had stumbled across a different type of demon, one that had the original DNA structure from which the mutated form was birthed, and from the man found they had learned that special demons like Kikushita Hatsue and Uchiha Sasuke had special abilities that went beyond the powers they already had. The demon itself had explained them in exchange for something Kabuto discovered in his research._

_Looking down at the confused teens reminded him of the old demon's voice, fanatical but shaky._

"Mutants? You call them lowly? The boy and the girl are not mutants," _he had corrected, pausing to allow for another question to be asked before continuing in answer. _"What would I call them? I don't know. They don't have a name anymore, but they're different. They're not like the rest. They're higher tier, demon royalty, and the rebirth of their long extinct race. Everyone's been waiting on them, but they don't know it. Life snatchers, they're called. Unwanted, they're cursed. But bite your stupid tongues 'fore you regret it, bunch of ingrates. You've heard me! You abominations are a shame to our kind! Mutants and rightly named, look at what you've done! Working for humans!" _He spat at whoever was interviewing him and returned to his rant, spending the greater portion of twenty minutes insulting the mutated race of Oni demons before returning to the starting topic. _"Take care of them. Take good care of that boy and girl. You don't damage them. Don't bring your experiments on 'em. Let 'em free, runnin' wild. They're looking for home." _He paused, his tone lost in the depth of his words. _"Home…let 'em find home."

_Kabuto later had read that the demon ancient died without revealing his kind to them and without uttering another word after talking of Uchiha and Kikushita. His final pleas went on unanswered because the project leader used the funds for the research to build the first facility building, calling it a nest for Uchiha Sasuke and Kikushita Hatsue—"Home" in jest, he had said, "let them find home here."_

_He had built a towering home in the middle of nowhere for two and more if they ever came where they may know no other home again._

_The fresh batch of untrained mutants, ashen skin and pale eyed they stood in wait of instruction. They arrived the same way the others did, voluntarily. The facility offered mutants splendid pay, benefits, and as many tempting offers necessary to lure them to their side and the newbies were specifically trained to be able to tame the brawn of a pureblood demon._

_"I don't understand the purpose of parading them with the others," Tsunade averred, continuing on a conversation he had been absent from._

_Orochimaru smiled, his serpent-like features more pronounce under the fluorescent lights above them. Amusement danced in his golden eyes. "The others have never been in the presence of their kind," he said in twisted excitement. "They must know they are different. Just looking at them, they are different."_

So I'm not the only one, _Kabuto observed. His eyes lingered on the two. Kikushita Hatsue stood frightened, deep green eyes following even the slightest hint of noise about the gargantuan room, and Uchiha Sasuke remained resolute, facing forward and outwardly calm despite the determination in his dark gaze when it wandered to the head staff atop the platform. It took one word from him to soothe Hatsue when she seemed panicked enough to suffer an anxiety attack and once the representative of their organization began his long-winded speech, Sasuke allowed her to take his hand for comfort._

_The true speculation had started then and by the end of the week many were convinced by mere theory that the two might be soul mates judging by their behavior towards one another. Sasuke displayed a certain level of protectiveness that exceeded the norm and vice versa, she didn't seem to fall behind in that aspect. It also became impossible to separate them as originally planned as one would always find the other despite the floors set between them or the obstacles. It was impossible not to see what was already there, but Kabuto couldn't judge until he saw it firsthand. He didn't like to jump to conclusions._

_He personally met them two months after their arrival once he had taken the job to become Kikushita Hatsue's doctor. He entered the room with one of his colleagues to run the first physical examination on the two before the start of experimentation. He discovered Kikushita Hatsue in a strangely playful mood, almost inappropriately energetic, and when he asked about her opinion on the facility, she said, "Well, the food's good, so I wouldn't complain, but the place is pretty lonely, so I'd work on that if I were you." _

_The answer amused him and he wondered endlessly why she would say that. He expected something different, perhaps a question to his question or a complaint. He'd willingly accept a rant._

_Meanwhile, his colleague expressed difficulties in engaging Uchiha Sasuke in conversation. He didn't talk to anyone and with time, Kabuto realized he didn't have a need to because Hatsue spoke for him. The two were suspiciously inseparable, but still Kabuto refused to believe the two were destined for eternity. No, this was something strange._

_There were four others like them sharing one room within the first year after Hatsue successfully bartered for her and Sasuke's safety through information. She promised to pinpoint them in the right direction if they were spared the pain of the experiments and at the time, the scientists had no reason to refuse the offer. _

_She did as agreed and for the last year, they held up their end of the bargain, but the other demons were weak and dying in their presence as they continued to mature. Unwanted demons like Kikushita and Uchiha were incapable of being near others without stealing their essence—the core of life—and his superiors were growing impatient when it came to them. Though the two helped them locate other pureblooded demons, none were quite like them and they were knowledgeable on a wider spectrum than any of his human colleagues could ever hope to become._

_Kabuto headed for the room, the gold plaque to the left of the twin doors listed their patients' names and above that sat a narrow whiteboard, numbered from one to six and besides each there were medical needs and appointments for the day. The mutant nurses often wrote out their complaints on the boards expecting the physicians to do something about it because they had more voice in the facility._

_He unlocked the door himself, but a mutant guard took his key and bolted the room shut as soon as he ventured inside. The chatter seized immediately and he noted an evident separation between Kikushita and Uchiha and their four other roommates._

_Sasuke eyed him suspiciously before slinking off the bed to the bathroom. _

_"I heard you were ill," Kabuto commented. One of the round-the-clock nurses complained to the head nurse about Kikushita's implacable behavior, saying that she skipped all her meals for the last week and avoided all mention of exercise. As far as daily check-ups went, she seemed perfectly healthy if not restless and a tad insomniac but he prescribed her specially made sleeping pills to help, not that he expected she would take them. _

_"I think the nurses are bullying you," she remarked._

_The door opened and Sasuke's nurse appeared, scouring the room in search of the dark-eyed teenager. She asked the huddled group of Oni purebloods at the living area about her charge, most were in their early twenties with ashen skin and eyes that glowed yellow in rage, but classified for what they were for the pointed horns protruding from their temples. Even in that Hatsue and Sasuke proved to be different and although they were called horned demon, they looked nothing like the Oni when tests threatened to push them past the precipice of control. Forcing them to the brink of transformation proved difficult with Hatsue as she had hold of other's emotions and was capable of changing a person's intention with a dose of peace, but Sasuke alone was a different story._

_Kabuto remembered an incident three weeks prior. The involved staff had yet to recover from the scare. Uchiha Sasuke had been locked in a reinforced room of reflective metal with a dozen Oni mutants on standby if the situation demanded it after Sasuke had suffered starvation and been drugged to insanity. The mutants had been asked to provoke him and when the first strike connected, drawing blood, the boy looked crazed. It took a second, third, and forth before he loosened his grip on rationality and the change begun. His skin darkened, turned a sickly gray and his eyes burned red in his rage, the horns that protruded from his temples and flared upward were different from an Oni's._

_His skin, sheened with sweat took on a second coloring, a shade of brilliant blue in the form of scales that begun to spread against his cheekbones when Hatsue had appeared, breaking through the door to reach for her friend. By then Sasuke had singlehandedly killed the mutants that protected the scientists observing him and was on the verge of ripping their necks open with sharpened teeth. Had it not been for Hatsue, those humans would have been dead and yet they rewarded her by striking her down with him, testing a new tranquilizer—ten times stronger than the one used on the Oni or their mutated counterparts._

_"Yakushi-sensei." Kabuto snapped out of his thoughts and found the exasperated nurse tapping her foot at him. "Have you seen Uchiha?"_

_Sasuke left the bathroom before he could offer a response._

_"There you are," she complained. "You have a visitor. A human, so you're expected to behave."_

_In passing, Sasuke met Hatsue's eyes and without words he passed along a message to her. Soon as he ventured up the short steps and out the entrance, Hatsue jumped off the bed._

_"I want to go with him."_

_"Why?" he asked. "Are you bound to him?"_

_"Yes," she said firmly. "Our kind never separates. Where he goes, I follow. Where I stay, he stays."_

_"She's lying!" an Oni snapped._

_Hatsue cast him a long look that quelled the chaos brewing inside of him. _

_Kabuto remained curious about her words and more of the relationship she shared with Sasuke. "You have pending blood tests, follow me."_

_Hatsue was quick to follow him, flipping her roommates the bird. She sprinted down the hall until she fell into his stride and seemed positively elated once they descended the staircase to the visitor's hall where he granted her access inside. Sasuke's visitor was a human male with sunny hair and blue eyes that widened at the sight of her._

_The girl barreled towards him, the visitor, and wrapped her arms around his neck. She held him tight before tugging away, hands on his face as if searching for wounds and redirected her attention to Sasuke, whose arm she squeezed. When it seemed nobody was paying them any attention, Kabuto saw Hatsue lace her fingers with the boy's and rest their entwined hands on her leg._

_He approached the woman behind the glass at the front desk and asked for the sign-in sheet for visitors which she provided with a smile. He searched the list of names until he came upon the last: _Uzumaki Naruto.

_Kabuto turned back to the table seating three, two demons and a human, and caught Sasuke's gaze, but he cared little about him now. He himself couldn't stop a smile from appearing on his lips. This information would surely be valuable and it was his._

_Kikushita Hatsue did have a soul mate and it wasn't Uchiha Sasuke._

* * *

**( **_Part II _**)**

* * *

The heart monitor gave a drawn out beep as Kabuto tugged bloody gloves off his hands and took a moistened cloth to wipe the sweat beaded on his forehead. He spent long hours attempting to repair something that was already too broken and yet he stubbornly continued trying to create a different outcome. He should have trusted Kikushita Hatsue's instinct. It never failed.

He lowered dark eyes to Uzumaki Naruto's dead body and readjusted his glasses. Once cleaned, he ordered it to be wheeled to the basement floor to the morgue. He changed out of his surgical clothes and went straight for the elevator to take his report to Orochimaru, who had been the only reason he hadn't suffered harsher consequences for bring Hatsue back.

Kabuto took a detour to the top floor of the building, remembering to tug on a thick winter coat.

As soon as the metal doors slid apart, a gust of cold swept through him. He stepped forward to the end of the hallway, biting back a shudder. The entire floor had been turned into a walk-in freezer to handle their demons, without the proper equipment or an army of mutants at their disposal they resorted to creating this frozen hell. The extremes conditions caused a near-death experience for any demon as their heart beat weakened keeping them alive by a mere thread and so, as if to cope, their bodies resigned to some form of hibernation in attempt to heal a nonexistent wound.

He reached the end before a curve into the largest room where a window granted him access into the icy wonderland within. Frosted walls and glazed surfaces, the little furniture inside looked crystalized and fragile, but despite the icicles forming on the ceiling, the room was a sterile environment for four slumbering demons. His eyes swept past the newest additions to the facility's collection and landed on Hatsue's frozen face, though he'd initially been intrigued by the idea of two new species of demons, it turned out to be less thrilling than the mystery surrounding Sasuke and Hatsue's origins.

For as long as the two had been imprisoned by the facility, they had been classified as Oni demons because of their ability to manipulate their looks to match them. Speculation had gone around concerning the theory of the two being some form of shape shifting demon, but as plausible as the clues made it, Kabuto had seen Sasuke's skin turn fully gray before scales bloomed across his face and his horns grow high. He had chosen to stay silent, so he had taken a side that had nothing to do with his own observations or opinions because these were secrets he wanted to keep to himself.

Kabuto cast a fleeting glance in Sasuke's direction before heading for the door. He wasn't sure what had been the purpose of his visit. Did he expect to find a change in Hatsue? Did he hope to see her mourning the death of her soul mate? If he had, it had been a stupid thought and it stopped existing in his mind the second he pushed the button for the second floor.

He found Orochimaru studying a vial of gray substance that shone peculiarly under a beam of sunlight.

"A new drug?" he asked in observation.

"It freezes the bloodstream," answered the pale scientist.

"Can it force a demon into hibernation?"

"That is the idea." Orochimaru set the vial next to several others on the long worktable overflowing with scientific instruments. He crossed the open space to a desk and chair on the opposite side of the room, the only area in the room left partially empty and unused. "How did the operation go? Did you save the human?"

"No," Kabuto answered passively. "Too many of his organs were damaged and he bled out faster than the transfusions could reach him."

A silence passed between them as Orochimaru sifted through a small stack of paperwork in the first drawer of his desk. "We need the three patients prepared for the move," he began, casting a strange glance in his direction and before a new question left his lips, he answered it. "Without Uzumaki Naruto, there is no need for Hatsue here. She is another Raito and will likely die."

Kabuto took the news as any professional would, with acceptance, but it took great will ignoring the turmoil fighting to show in his countenance. He recalled the fanatical Raito, the first Oni the facility acquired, watery lilac eyes crazed and framed by thick wild black hair, who had cursed the mutants working for the facility and had gone on to stress the importance of Hatsue and Sasuke. Raito, like Hatsue, lost his soul mate before his capture; he had steadily gone mad after it until his body withered and died. It made Kabuto wonder if madness awaited Hatsue as well.

Was that the reason the elusive facility director wanted to return her home? Would they even give her the peace of knowing Naruto died? No, he knew she would simply be deprived of certain memories and thrust back into the real world to continue living as she was before that accident brought her to the facility.

"Is there more?" asked Orochimaru.

Kabuto blinked and looked at the scientist in inquiry. "No, that is all. Excuse me."

He headed for the door.

"Kabuto."

He faced him, quick to notice the vial he had taken out of his pocket. "Yes, Orochimaru-san?"

Orochimaru turned the ampoule pinched between his thumb and forefinger, the red liquid inside painted the glass surface. "You should rethink your resignation," he started. "You are, after all, the facility's most valuable doctor and it'll be troublesome for us to find another at this point in time."

Kabuto tensed, tampering down the curiosity to ask for the contents of the vial. "I apologize." He paused, rethinking his explanation for the sudden decision. "I accepted the job offer to work with Unwanted demons and without Kikushita, Uchiha will close up as he did so many times before. As is, he's never been malleable, but Kikushita has been around to dangle before him as bait and without her, we have nothing. He has nobody he's particularly fond of, so he doesn't care whether he lives or dies. Once Kikushita withers to join Uzumaki, he will surely do the same to spite us all."

The video footage of Raito came to mind, the way he had shouted about them and the way he lowered his voice when he said, _"Home…let 'em find home." _ His eyes had risen, pale and remorseful, as his mouth moved slowly, repeating the words over and over again until his temperament had flared and seven mutants forced him to the ground for a shot of tranquilizers. Kabuto had read on the printed report of the interview that before losing consciousness, he whispered Hatsue's name.

"I don't disagree," Orochimaru agreed. "Hatsue's ability has been vital to manage him."

"Hatsue has never used her ability against him," Kabuto explained. "His and hers are too alike to make it possible for her to be able to affect him the way she does others. The only thing she can do is read him."

The pale scientist smiled. "Would you sacrifice a good job here because Kikushita will no longer be a patient?"

"I signed on for a set, not one uncontrollable demon," Kabuto defended with a mirrored smile. "Without Kikushita, we lose our set."

Orochimaru flicked he ampoule into the air, the red substance caught the light as it spiraled towards him. Kabuto reached and caught it above his head with ease and brought it down to eye level. The vial was warm. It was blood that darkened to black under the shadows in the room, but when raised up to the any light, the tiny particles inside it shone a bright red like flickering lights against a dark surface. Demon blood, of the Hatsue and Sasuke variety.

Kabuto lifted his eyes to him. "What is this?"

"Do you know how mutants are created, Kabuto-kun?"

"Mutants are not created, they are born from generations of their demon ancestors breeding with humans," he answered.

"After twenty years of research, I came upon an answer to that very question," he said in strange fascination. "What is it that makes a demon different from a human? Essence. They carry it in their bloodstream. It is their identity, a stamp of who and what they are? What if you were able to pass this essence to another? Would it alone be capable of altering the human DNA to create a mutant? The problem has been bottling it. Once the blood leaves their system, it loses its essence—its life."

Kabuto stared at the vial in his hand. "You bottled it."

"Only temporarily. Essence is preserved in fluctuating heat. A mistake results in it losing its shine and darkening." Orochimaru returned to his worktable and gestured for him to follow. "The problem is getting it to work."

His interest was newly piqued. "How do you suppose you'll do that?"

"There will be sacrifices." Orochimaru glimpsed over his shoulder, a wicked smile played on his lips. "Tell me, Kabuto-kun, does Uzumaki Naruto have any living relatives we should inform of his passing?"

"No."

"Then I suppose nobody will mind his body being the first to be sacrificed."

Clutching the warm vial in his hand, the doctor smiled. "I suppose not."

* * *

_"Those guys were starting to warm up to me, I'm sad to see them go," Kikushita remarked sarcastically, taking a deep breath at his command when he placed the cold stethoscope on her chest. "So, why are they really leaving, Kabuto-sensei?"_

_Kabuto listened to the shallow palpitations of her heart. No strange fluctuations. "Why do you think?"_

_"I feel like I've been life snatching the one that used to sleep next to me," she said with a laugh. "I didn't feel too bad. He was a bit of an asshole. He threw my shampoo down the drain last month and made me wash my hair with soap until the demurses got me a new one." She frowned, looking past him. "Don't glare, Sasuke, it's bad for your face. You'll wrinkle early."_

_"I heard a different story," Kabuto mused._

_Hatsue smiled evilly. She forgot to mention having filled her emptied bottle of shampoo with the instigator's and shaved down his bar of soap as a replacement, spicing it with pepper from the cafeteria. It seemed like nothing, but it started something of a war between them that begun as an innocent joke and ended in unnecessary deaths. Hatsue had killed her roommate enough time to keep him dead for several days._

_"What's are demurses?" asked Shizune, who stood beside Sasuke filling in for his sick doctor._

_"Demon and nurse put together," she answered haughtily. "Come on, Shizune-sensei, get with the program, you've been here a whole week already and you're not nearly as caught up as you should be."_

_The dark haired doctor frowned, red cheeked._

_Kabuto shook his head and gathered his things. He left her with a bag of pretzel sticks he bought off a vending machine upstairs and followed Shizune out of the room. The guards locked up behind them and one escorted them to the staff elevator._

_"Kikushita-san must be a handful," Shizune commented, surprising him after the elevator doors slid closed. There was never much need for small talk between them._

_"Don't let her bother you," he tried nicely, pressing the third floor button. _

_"Tsunade-sensei told me all about her," she went on. "I didn't expect her to be that way."_

_"You'll need to get used to the fact that Kikushita and Uchiha will never like us," he told her. "They tolerate us, but that's simply a survival instinct. If they can't escape, they need to adapt." He paused as the elevator reached its destination with a ding and stepped out after her. She waited for him outside the small area where three hallways joined. "Kikushita will eventually grow bored with you and will move onto something else, but I suggest you don't try to win her over, she can get unpleasant."_

_Shizune looked crestfallen. Obviously she had signed up for a job with different expectations. "What about Uchiha-san?"_

_"So long as you're professional with your work and Kikushita, you should have no problem with him." _

_Kabuto walked on ahead, leaving the young doctor flabbergasted and curious enough to ask a dozen questions at once. She bit her tongue and he appreciated the silence as the two traveled farther into the third floor for the meeting where they arrived a little over three minutes late. Beyond a long table seating their superiors, a paneled wall held a large screen streaming the surveillance camera footage in a dozen tiny screens. While preparations and expectations were met in one of the sister facilities in Japan, the four Oni that used to share living arrangements with their very own Unwanted demons had been relocated to the neighboring room where the quartet now sat huddled in the living area in a way that seemed suspicious. In the screen beside that, he saw Hatsue jumping on Sasuke's bed while he attempted to read. In the outdoor footage, he saw three Oni mutants cutting through the courtyard back and forth as if heralding the apocalypse._

_His eyes traveled up to the visitor's hall where he discovered two familiar faces. One belonged to Kikushita's dark haired sister, the youngest of them, and standing next to her was Naruto looking as though he had just woken up._

_"What a frightening face you're making," said Orochimaru wondrously, following his eyes to the newly arrived guests. "Uzumaki Naruto visits a lot, doesn't he?"_

_"I suppose."_

_"Our Hokkaido Branch is having trouble with protestors," Tsunade commented, putting down her phone after receiving the news. _

_Since Kikushita and Uchiha's capture, the people had started various protests. More humans wanted them dead rather than imprisoned and many had perfectly understandable reasons, but they were also incapable of understanding the value of these demons. Some of the rowdier individuals once attacked a scientist, a group of youths successfully stole a facility van carrying an Oni demon being transferred to a different branch and the five young men ended up dead. The facility took the blame for that, though the story was different from what was printed in the news. The five young men had driven the Oni to the woods, soaked her in gasoline and lit a match. She struck out of fear, new to her surroundings and power, and killed them._

_Something needed to be done, but there were going to be disagreements whether or not they discovered a solution so Kabuto figured thinking of one was shaping up to be pointless. But staring at the screen, particularly at the visitor's hall where Kikushita's sister and her secret soul mate waited on the nurses sent out to fetch the two returned, he came upon a thought that sounded a lot more outrageous leaving his lips than it did dancing in his head._

_"We should release one," he said in suggestion once the meeting concluded and only few remained seated._

_"What good would that do?" Tsunade questioned in reluctance._

_"We have a new machine to alter memories and a drug capable of suppressing demon capabilities. If Kikushita or Uchiha are released to the public under the guise of a miraculous cure that eliminated the demon gene, it might convince the masses that we are not keeping them imprisoned without explanation…that we've had a breakthrough and Kikushita Hatsue has been cured."_

_There were chances that might backfire as well. Although, people feared the demons, there were groups that wanted to find a way to live among them peacefully and were against their imprisonment._

_Tsunade frowned. "Why Kikushita? By the media's standards she was presented as the most dangerous of the two. Let's say we did go with this idea, wouldn't Kikushita attract more negative attention because her name is synonymous with the Demon Awakenings despite the Tokyo incident with the businessman."_

_"Kikushita is the only female of her kind," Orochimaru began. "She is too important a subject to lose."_

_"Uchiha is the stronger demon," Kabuto challenged._

_"He is also incontrollable without her around," Tsunade continued. "We can't separate them. They need to stay together and in one place. They're opposite of each other and I think that's the only thing that's saved us from being killed by Uchiha."_

_"No, the reason is him." Kabuto pointed at the visitor's hall screen in the same instance that Hatsue wrapped her arms around Naruto as if in greeting. She held him tight and a minute too long. "They are toying with us. I have reason to suspect that Uzumaki Naruto is her mate and they're trying to protect him."_

_Silence reigned. Tsunade and Orochimaru exchanged skeptical looks before they finally turned to him._

_"Why would they want to protect a human?" asked Shizune, taking their track record with other humans into serious consideration._

_Almost simultaneously, as if they had been in complete mental synch, everyone came to a sudden conclusion. He looked from one face to another, prepared to speak._

_"We don't have reason to believe he is human," Orochimaru said finally, giving doubt an identity. "Sasuke sees everything."_

_"That's impossible," Tsunade cut in. "He tested human."_

_Kabuto agreed. It sounded impossible because every visitor was supposed to go through a blood test to ensure no visitor was a demon or mutant without their knowledge. If they were, the facility had the right to take them into custody, but that had only happened once with one of the Oni demons about to be transferred out._

_Uzumaki Naruto passed._

_Did that mean demons possessed some way to disguise their true nature?_

_"Maybe he is not yet a demon," said Orochimaru, changing the settings on the surveillance footage so that the visitor's hall stream was the only thing on the screen. He looked onto the blond doctor with a crooked smile. "But if he is indeed Hatsue's mate, then you have a problem on your hands. Sasuke and Hatsue will never come together to breed."_

_Tsunade bit down on her thumb pensively. "This won't do. We need that child."_

_"We need to remove Uzumaki Naruto," Kabuto said, receiving silent approval from the scientist. "Memory alteration might be the only way to accomplish that."_

_"But we've never tried that on them," Tsunade argued. "Oni are more resilient, but how sure are we that it'd work on Hatsue."_

_"There's a first for everything," Orochimaru said with a shrug. "Maybe we can't stop Uzumaki from being Hatsue's mate, but we can probably make it so she believes that Sasuke-kun is her opposite through slight alterations. If it's successful, you'll have that child."_

_"But what of Sasuke? He would know."_

_"We won't need to worry about him until the time is ripe." Orochimaru faced him, earning a quizzical glance. "Care to join me?"_

_Kabuto nodded. "If I can be of help."_

* * *

**( **_Part III _**)**

* * *

Kabuto had taken back his letter of resignation and immersed himself in Orochimaru's vision. The initial plan had received plenty of criticism from the doctors and scientists on the staff because it required living and deceased humans to act as test subjects. Tsunade and her assistant Shizune had fronted the protest against it calling it cruel and inhumane, so Kabuto had been the first to remind them that they kept two teenage prisoners for ten whole years doing worse than injecting demon essence into their bloodstream. But he had realized, shortly after throwing that bit of truth in their faces, that many of his coworkers believed it easier to disregard their humanoid appearance and portray them as monsters to commit to the experiments.

He had almost pitied Tsunade once she accepted the silence her arguments brought on. She had never seem the type of person that should work in a place like the facility, but he had heard Orochimaru convinced her to join, much like he had recommended the project to him. Whatever he must have promised her, it must have been important beyond words.

Despite the hardships, Orochimaru had gained permission to do as necessary to accomplish his goal and rounded up ten healthy inmates from a prison to begin the first stage of experimentation. Meanwhile, Kabuto picked out a good crop of recently deceased human bodies to start his own macabre affair and he included Uzumaki Naruto. He prepared each body, ensuring they remained fresh like a mortician readied a corpse for viewing.

He worked countless hours in observation. Orochimaru taught him step by step the proper way to extract blood from the four pureblooded demons in their possession and most importantly how to preserve it. He needed to learn quickly since the temporary building was emptying out in preparation of one final move to a private island off the coast of Japan where it'll be less likely for their patients to attempt another escape. The underground laboratory there would provide them with everything they might need to make the experiments a success, but first they needed to prepare their subjects to make the trip and that took much longer than anticipated.

* * *

The facility's main staff settled quickly into their new workplace and in the first week after Orochimaru's band of scientists had accommodated to the new laboratory, the testing began. Orochimaru assembled two groups of his most capable subordinates and took one in the hopes of dealing with the human group, while Kabuto was left to front the secondary team and expected to challenge his own theory. He believed that if creating mutants was a possibility, then there would need to be a catalyst and he thought that it might be death.

Kabuto stared at the four pale corpses lying on individual steel tables growing colder and wondered if his theory of a catalyst involved a specific stretch of time. Would they need to have the blood running through them before death? Or could it work just the same now?

One of his assistants handed him a pair of gloves and another slid a tray of tools at arm's length. He pulled on the latex surgical gloves and found the scalpel. He looked to the team surrounding the first table and then refocused his attention to the lifeless body beneath him. Whatever his doubts were, they disappeared the second he made the first incision down the man's torso and started the first phase to his work. As prevention against another escape, all demons, mutants, and even new test subjects were required to have a tracking device installed, embedded in their heart with a secondary function capable of bringing down the most uncontrollable demon.

Kabuto hated the idea of it, but not for the reasons one might expect.

The procedure dragged on until late that evening. He expected all tracking devices to be in and in functioning order before the sun hit its highest peak in the afternoon with three skilled scientists on the job, but even though they had opted to skip lunch to wrap things up, it took too long.

Kabuto entered his apartment, dropping the keys in his hand on a nearby surface. The lodgings in the edifice were similarly furnished and only large enough to accommodate one resident. The facility provided everyday necessities and food on a monthly basis, and while he expected to tire soon, he had no reason to complain since this was a free service for his continued work. His involvement in recent experiments did end up giving him a room located on the eight floor where with the exception of one neighbor across the hall, there were no others.

The mutants were given two apartment buildings across the street to accommodate their large numbers. He hoped to see their kind increase with the experiments underway, but he doubted he or Orochimaru would achieve immediate success. His catalyst theory went on strong, but he felt they were working with an incomplete formula and he had been eager to return home to further his research.

He slipped into his bedroom and dug through his luggage. He tugged out an ancient book wrapped in cloth from the very bottom of his traveling bag and took it with him to the empty desk facing the window. If human science wasn't enough to solve the mystery of creating others, some otherworldly method was bound to exist. Although, the facility remained ignorant of the Otherworld, he prided himself in his knowledge and the dark tomes he inherited through darker knowledge. The facility knew two things, the truth its staff uncovered and the lies it fed to all its demons.

Kabuto and his coworkers talked in a code to ensure their demons learned a different tune, but they learned to tread carefully as Sasuke's power allowed him to see everything he did not understand.

He stripped the cloth away from the weather book and opened it. He sifted through hundreds of brittle pages covered in images and writings in a dead language. He searched blindly for a solution to his problem, but the only leads he uncovered involved ways to kill different species of demon or protection against them. One in particular caught his attention.

Rowan.

Kabuto paused on the page. The Rowan tree was primarily used as a protective charm by the Celtic people by tying a branch in red thread and hanging it above the entrance to their homes and while rumor of it made it seem like a mere superstition, he knew firsthand that rowan worked wonders. A demon's instinct automatically steered cleared of its presence. It acted more as a repellant than a weakness for them. They weren't violent allergic to it, they were more averse to its scent and its dominion over them.

If exposed to rowan long enough, a demon might become weakened by it, but that'd take time. Truth be told, the compression pills he created to suppress Hatsue's demon capabilities were made from its ashes and it had taken near three months before she lost control of her ability to feel everyone's emotions, which at the time had been a welcomed reprieve for her. The second time she left the facility on temporary leave, it had been easier to make her human, and by the third, she had grown used to the poison. A single new dose was all it took to deprive her of her power.

He tore down his initial plan for tomorrow. It wouldn't do simply injecting the blood and hoping death might be enough to create new mutants. There needed to be a catalyst and if he couldn't uncover one, he'd make his own. After staring at the drawn picture of a rowan tree with its dark limbs and the memory of its bright red berries, he stumbled on an idea and started thinking of a different approach for tomorrow.

* * *

The only success Kabuto came across in the last fifteen days involved the instantaneous decay of seven test subjects. He tried many ideas that used rowan in dangerous ways. He lined the inside of the bodies with its ash before injecting the blood taken from an Oni and watched the body twist into itself in complete rejection of the combination until its bones fell away as ash and skin and organs melted into a nightmare. He spend hours trying to find a way to bring the two together, rowan and demon blood without the latter being negated, but he failed. He tried other approaches, but his chances of achievement were dwindling and he was growing impatiently close to taking drastic measures.

After fifteen days, he began toying with the idea of using a dark ritual that might only work with Unwanted blood, but he wanted to avoid using Hatsue and Sasuke's blood, so while considering the prospect of this final resort, he worked extra hours trying to replicate the sample he'd taken from the two. He hoped human science was advanced enough to remedy his problem because he did not want to have to explain a ritual to the rest of the staff or speak of how he knew it. He didn't want to talk about his past nor did he want to explain why he worked in a facility that imprisoned demons when he was one himself. There were things humans were better off not knowing, particularly the reason as to why millions of demon species left the Otherworld to live among them. Much like they were safer being ignorant of Hatsue and Sasuke's true identities. If anyone so much said or thought the word terrible things might occur. It was better that they remained classified as superior to Oni.

Orochimaru faced similar troubles, but made more progression than he had despite having lost twelve humans during what he considered a transitioning period. Kabuto imagined the demon blood was making the humans sick and figured it wouldn't be long before his superior had no more humans left to further his research. Of course, he knew that wouldn't stop Orochimaru from continuing, he'd simply procure more humans and that'd be that.

The twelve humans, however, replaced the seven test subjects he had lost.

Kabuto wandered into the upper level floor where he discovered the newly thawed out demons locked away in a gargantuan steel room covered in mirrors. He watched them through a window at the very top. Hyuga Hinata and Inuzuka Kiba kept to themselves at a table reminiscent of Hatsue and Sasuke when they had first arrived, but Sasuke looked restless and he assumed it had everything to do with the absence of his trusted companion. Hatsue remained in the new facility's freezer down a level, hidden away from everyone's eyes. She was supposed to have been released to restart her life, but Kabuto wanted to keep her. She was too valuable to cast aside, more so now without that hindrance of a mate (and yet it seemed curious that he was attempting to save that very man), and he didn't want to commit to something he'd regret so Orochimaru helped him. She had been one of his demands for staying on as a doctor.

He stayed a minute too long observing them that his presence called Tsunade's attention when she wandered into the hallway. She approached him with a hint of reluctance and Shizune following close behind.

"How are your experiments?" she asked in greeting.

"You'd be happy to hear they are failing," he answered, nodding in Shizune's direction. She did the same, lips pursed in a thin line as her searching eyes found the three demons housed inside the mirror room.

"We have enough mutants, mutants we are barely able to control, why do you want to risk creating a whole army of them?" Tsunade asked, voice edging on exasperation as she rekindled an old argument.

She believed the facility was giving demons and mutants alike a reason to feud with humans, which wasn't far from the truth considering Otherworldly beings once lived in peace with them until that businessman incident that resulted in their exposure. Demons never had trouble blending in with the others. The children were masked by charms until they were capable of controlling their appearance and the adults worked everyday jobs to provide for their families. There were unspoken rules within the demon and mutant community and they had been followed and respected for centuries.

Before that moment, humanity believed the horned skeletons they discovered during archeological expeditions were a secondary race that perished many millennia ago. Scientists everywhere were uncovering fossilized remnants of older species that were mere myths to Otherworld beings and building histories for them, slowly but surely preparing to release it all to the news media as a great discovery with the hope it might help them better understand the way of the old world. It was supposed to become another educational segment that turned into hell for Otherworld creatures.

Kabuto suspected something had caused that businessman to become crazed. Perhaps it had something to do with the mysterious energy now emitting from the seam between worlds or maybe it had everything to do with Sasuke and Hatsue coming into their ancestral powers. He had been curious and had wanted to see for himself, so he didn't turn Orochimaru away when he was ultimately offered the job.

"The purpose of the facility begun with that premise," Kabuto said. "We didn't create a prison to keep the population safe; we created a laboratory to study them with the hope of discovering a way to become like them. Other countries are doing the same and soon the fruits of their labor will be sent into war and war will decide what happens next. If this is proving too difficult for you, you are free to step down from your position whenever you please. Excuse me."

He turned away after one final glance in Sasuke's direction, who had walked across the room to speak to the other two, holding his hands fisted at his sides.

"I expected you to stand up for Hatsue," she said suddenly.

He halted, hands stuffed into the pockets of his lab coat. "Why would you expect that?"

"You always seemed to be on her side no matter what," she answered, "but then again, you are the one that sent her away the first time."

He twisted around, a friendly smile on his face. "It was nice seeing you. Goodbye."

"Nobody knows where she is."

Again, he stopped. They wouldn't find her anywhere because she was frozen downstairs. "Should that concern me?" he questioned. "She's probably run off with that friend of hers."

"She never met with Yue or the owner of that club she worked with," Tsunade went on. "It's been weeks since she was released and her family's starting to worry."

"She'll be fine."

Tsunade's lips twisted in a way that made it seem like she had wanted a different reaction.

He dropped by Orochimaru's laboratory to assess the current situation, but the difficulties didn't change so he went straight for the elevator to head into the morgue where he performed his experiments.

The low temperature chilled his skin as soon as he entered. The new bodies were being prepared by the others and he expected it to run smoothly once he split up his team into three people groups to perform different duties. Things would speed by this morning's developments and with so many tests run simultaneously there was still hope for a breakthrough.

He oversaw all new changes that morning and did little to partake in the experiments. Ideas plagued his mind, dark ones that promised a well-sought solution.

Kabuto returned home later that evening and found the ancient book on his desk, open where he left it last. He sat and dug through his drawer for the plain silver necklace. He held it pinched between two fingers and felt the cold chain slide across his palm like water before dropping low, the desk lamp's dim light catching the pendulous rose diamond as it bounced up and down.

The gem paled in the illumination and in the center a circle of light shone a deep magenta. The Kikushita family heirloom that always hung around Hatsue's neck contained an ancient power, one that had unknowingly passed down to her. He had been glad that it never occurred to her to sell it when the Kikushita family fell into ruin.

Hatsue never knew it, but she walked into the facility not knowing she stepped inside wearing her own weakness. And for many years it had prevented her from becoming a demon, but something nulled its special properties towards the end of her high school career.

He stared at the suppressed power glowing when it finally hit him. He skimmed through the pages of his book, finding nothing, and hurried to his shelf for another that contained similar subjects. He searched through it and three others before stumbling across a page the explained the purpose of the power in his hand. The rose diamond necklace contained the true strength of a demon like Hatsue and Sasuke and without it they were in what was considered an incomplete state. Alone the tiny crystal inside gave power to anyone that possessed it so long as they knew how to use it. He planned to learn today.

* * *

Rowan, demon blood, death, the Kikushita heirloom, and the dark ritual that bound them together turned into the winning combination. Kabuto found a way to extract the core of the diamond to create a dust he claimed to have come from a silver flower that only grew at night. He mixed rowan and the dust together with the blood extracted from the patients. The ritual was the one in need of explanation, though it wasn't hard to convince everyone into thinking the act was the demons' biggest kept secret.

However, no matter how perfect the combination turned out to be, only a specific type of person rose from the dead as mutants. It seemed impossible to tell which subject would wake or how long it would take them. One had woken immediately, but others took hours or days to wake. Their bodies were regenerating, that's why it had taken long for others. The ones that had been dead longer took a near seven days wake to their new life as mutants.

On the day the first dead man rose, Orochimaru had approached him with a wry smile. "You exceeded my expectations, Kabuto. This was beyond our wildest dreams and you've accomplished it through demon magic. It's extraordinary."

The scientist was present for that morning's demonstration. He wanted to witness it for himself, but truthfully, he wished to learn more of the ritual and Kabuto's knowledge of the demon magic that powered it. He hated that it had come to this, but he was willing to part with the knowledge to further his own ambitions.

Kabuto almost hesitated when it came to trying the ritual with Uzumaki Naruto. It seemed too big a risk to take, but a long time ago it had seemed that Sasuke and Hatsue were protecting him. He had initially suspected him to be a demon because of it, but he wasn't. He figured Sasuke had seen far enough into the future to see him as a mutant and mistook him for a pureblood like himself. This assumption made it easy to have the body carried into the room. It would surely be a success.

The concoction was implanted two ways, injected into the frozen bloodstream and spilled down their throats. One of the two would take hold. He watched two assistants do that in preparation of the blond man's stiff body and another draw a circle around the body with black ash for the ritual portion of the experiment.

Once the circle was completed, Kabuto crouched down before the body, taking the blood from a vial and drawing a line up the corpse's cold forehead. It fortified the body, strengthened it to be able to sustain the amount of power that the transition might awaken in them.

Following that, he uttered words, a spell that powered the flecks of dust from the concoction and the ash glowed, shining light into the high ceilings that compressed the air and swallowed Naruto in heat that melted the ice in his body. Forces gathered in the center of the room, visible only once they gathered above his corpse, turning and twisting like a violent hurricane above the heart. It was the natural manifestation of Hatsue's diamond.

Kabuto cast a glance in Orochimaru's direction. His gaze was rapt with fascination.

The ritual ended once the light disappeared into the shadows of the room and the tempest above the body dispelled with a hard gust of ice-cold wind that filled the room like an electric current. It ended too quickly.

Everyone looked to him for an explanation and the answer came in the form of a gasp from Uzumaki Naruto.

_Impossible_. Kabuto rushed forward with the others and watched the man sit up, patting his chest in search of bullet wounds before his eyes searched the room in complete disregard of the scientists gathering around him. _Something is not right._

"Hatsue!" he shouted, getting to his feet unlike others before him who had struggled to move for the first several minutes. "Hatsue!"

"Uzumaki," called Kabuto, drawing his attention.

Naruto stopped, blond eyebrows drawn, and jaw clenched. He seemed to have notice and he opened his mouth—

The ground trembled. The walls and doorways creaked as if they were starting to bend out of shape. Everyone stayed perfectly still and silent, exchanging glances as a strange rattling resonated through thick steel walls before a hard-hitting tremor knocked many off balance.

Kabuto stumbled and smacked straight into a worktable. The sheer force stole the breath from his body, but he grabbed onto the edges to steady his body as his senses came alive. _Something else is here._

"What the hell is happening?" one scientist demanded.

"An Unwanted demon is in need of feeding," Orochimaru answered, amused. He took advantage of a moment of stillness to cross the room towards the only elevator in the morgue. "If you don't want to forfeit your life, you'd take care to head above ground where its pull can't reach you."

Immediately, everyone that could rushed after him, piling inside the small space until the elevator stood packed. Kabuto made it to the entrance with others at his back, but there wasn't enough room for anyone to squeeze inside and he lifted his eyes to his superior who smiled as the doors begun to close.

"I won't be surprised if you survive this," he said, and the metal entrance sealed shut with a resounding ding.

Behind him the other unlucky scientists were starting to feel the strain of the demon energy oozing through the cracks in the walls stealing the life from their bodies. The few with enough willpower to resist the tempting call were in panic mode, unable to move as the others dropped around them like flies and their eyes widened as Naruto walked past them unaffected by the ground rocking beneath their feet.

"That snake guy's a dick," Naruto said huffily, arms folded over his chest.

"What?"

"What? You didn't know?" The newly transitioned demon shrugged. "There should be a staircase around here, right? We should take that."

"We?"

"You're taking me to Hatsue."

"She's not—"

"I can sense her," he interjected. "So quit wasting my time and start walking!"

Kabuto pushed the thought of Orochimaru being a demon from his head and nodded. "We need to take the emergency stairs," he ordered, helping one devastated man to his feet and ushering the rest towards their last remaining exit. "These go as far as B3."

"The Freezer?" one woman complained. "We won't survive in there."

"Shut up!" another man shouted. "We either go up or we die here!"

Another quake threw them against the walls and dust spiraled from the ceiling above. Metal scrapped against metal and bent it into the shapes the energy willed it. The lower floors wouldn't survive the pressure. He needed to reach the Freezer where the cause of the problem started. As soon as the shaking stopped, he shouted for the others to run on after Naruto, who was the first to spring through the entrance.

Hatsue had returned to life and after many weeks of death, she needed to replenish her energy the only way her body seemed capable. There were four ways to stop it from happening. Either she willed it to stop or another Unwanted demon forfeited his stores to help. If not, she would need to be killed and stay dead long enough to be relocated elsewhere or wear the diamond necklace she treasured and hope it activated, turning her human. He thought of his options and sifted through them eliminating the impossible ones. He sensed Sasuke's presence too far away, which meant he might not be aware of the situation unless he saw it through a vision, and Hatsue never learned to stop herself from stealing life. He never brought the Kikushita heirloom into the facility, so that left a single option.

"You're not going to kill her!" Naruto shouted warningly, startling him, He poked his head out the railing of the staircase one floor above him. "I can hear you muttering all the way over here, Four Eyes."

He wasn't muttering. _Something is definitely wrong here._

"With you, maybe, idiot dragon!"

Naruto shot forward, leaving him stunned.

"Kabuto-sensei! We need to catch up to Subject 15!" one scientist called from above.

Kabuto snapped out of his daze and took the stairs two and three at a time, adrenaline pumping through his veins. Only a certain species of demons were capable of reading thoughts and they had captured one recently. He didn't give Naruto kitsune blood. He gave him Hatsue's.

He didn't transition into an Unwanted mutant. He woke up from the dead like Hatsue. He was a demon from the start.

* * *

_On the day Hatsue was supposed to relinquish her memories, Kabuto found her sitting on a table in a room. She didn't understand what was going to happen to her only that it wouldn't be good and it showed in the bitter smile she flashed in his direction. He stepped closer to her, holding a clipboard with recent tests results._

_"There's a lot of chaos in you," she said quietly, tugging down her sleeve over the new forming contusions from repetitive injections. "You're here with bad news. What is it?"_

_"You shouldn't be prying in other people's emotions," he warned._

_"Why does it have to be me?"_

_Kabuto pulled a pen from his coat and tapped it against the clipboard quietly. "Do you have any last requests?"_

_"Protect him."_

_"Sasuke?"_

_"No, not Sasuke. He can take care of himself."_

_"Who?"_

_"Naruto. Protect him from these people," she said firmly, green eyes meeting his. "Do whatever you want with me, but stay away from him."_

_That piqued his interest. He stowed his pen away and slipped the clipboard under his arm. "Why?"_

_"Why?" she repeated incredulously. Her hands fisting on her lap, the knuckles turned white. "Why? You can't have him, that's why."_

.

.

.

**(** _to be continued_ **)**


	6. The Heart 1

**xl note**: This chapter goes a bit like this: Naruto POV in which you find out what Hatsue and Sasuke really are and we start laying on the plot thick while dealing with some drama. I hope you will enjoy it. :)

I'm going to be writing something on how the demon/mutant stuff works and the inheritance stuff as well as create a list of the demons on display on who is what (just as a safety measure in case I don't get to explain it well later). I'll probably have that ready and posted on my LJ before CH07 goes up.

I'm sure it will be so weird that this chapter only has two parts, don't worry, you'll get 3,4&5 on the next update and maybe more depending how long this ends up being...oh deceptive outlines.

Many thanks to **xXChirushiXx**, **YamiKitsuneKami**, **Vermiculus-umbra-chorus**, **Aries01xD**, **narukyu1**, and **mikethepokemaster** for reviewing the previous chapter.

Enjoy. :)

* * *

**All I Wanted** – The Heart I

_"This love has dried up and stayed behind,_

_And if I stay I'll be a lie_

_Then choke on words I'd always hide._

_Excuse me first love, but we're through."_

_- _**Adele**, _"First Love"_

* * *

**( **_Part I_ **)**

* * *

A blast of cold air sapped the warmth from his newly regenerated body. Uzumaki Naruto paused, he saw the others rushing up to enter B3, nicknamed The Freezer due to its dangerously low temperatures and glacial walls. Stepping into the floor was like entering a different dimension, a world of ice and steel devoid of life and his instinct steered him towards the next flight of stairs, but he ignored it in his pursuit of Hatsue.

The presence underneath the structure allowed its fluctuating power to burst in all directions before the surge came rushing upward in the form of an earthquake. He rushed back and grabbed the two humans closest to him, keeping them from falling. Once the tremors seized, he pinpointed Hatsue's location and sprang forward, leaving the others behind. He opened his mind to anyone within a twenty-mile radius and dug through the clutter of mystified and panicked thoughts when her voice finally reached him.

_'Namazu,' _she thought firmly, her familiar voice was like a distant echo._ 'There's a namazu below this place.'_

Naruto found the door and went straight to it. He reached for the frozen handle, prepared to feel it locked but it cracked instead. _I broke it. _He let the handle go and it clattered to the ground. _Nah, it's not broken._ He bent the metal to grasp at the door and pulled it open.

Hatsue stood in the center of a tiny room with a tarp held up against her chest, long waves of dark hair falling across her naked shoulders and her eyes large and bright green. He looked over his shoulder at the four-eyed doctor in evident suspicion. He was definitely the reason why Hatsue was standing there naked and covered in frost.

The four other facility employees shivered violently behind them.

"I need clothes," Hatsue said, pointing out the obvious.

"Can we keep going?" complained a woman, holding herself against the harsh conditions. "It's so cold here!"

"It's a freezer, what the hell do you expect? The beach?" a man retorted.

"Why're you here? It's like you want her to kill you," Naruto complained, shooing them away with his hand. "Go do something useful and find the next emergency staircase. Look that way!"

Four Eyes threw his lab coat at her before following after his colleagues and she slipped in it, using a cord she found lying on the ground to hold it together. He sensed the namazu preparing for another attack.

Naruto grabbed Hatsue by the wrist when the tremor struck, dragging her out the room and towards the next staircase. She stumbled several times and struggled climbing up the staircase like one might expect of a toddler, missing steps and tripping on others until Naruto tossed her over his shoulder. She complained about the short lab coat giving everyone a clear view of her ass and when he slid his hand over it, she pulled his hair in retaliation.

"Hatsue!" he shouted loudly, having tried to concentrate on the underground presence.

She held herself up to look on ahead. "It's a namazu," she said, as if reading his mind.

"How much further do we need to go?"

"Can't you tell?"

"Of course I can tell! I'm just making sure you can!" he answered quickly. He was running on instinct alone, he didn't have enough time recover from the damned experiments that weird demon put him through when he was believed dead. There was still rowan in his system mixed in Hatsue's blood and her strength was interfering with a chunk of his abilities.

"Ground level," she said. "A bit before that…" She trailed off in hesitation. "It's a namazu!"

"I know," he said, knowing then that the earthquakes had been too unnatural to be a natural coincidence. He felt her hand fist against his back, scrunching up the fabric of his loose white shirt.

There weren't many namazu around that part of Japan, so it'd been weird, but even if there had been any, they were prone to random attacks.

All the thoughts running through her head were starting to reach him in indiscernible clutters that made it hard to concentrate. "What is it?" he shouted, trying to stay focused.

"This is the same namazu from last time!" she revealed, putting an image to her chaotic thoughts.

He mulled over that information, running upward with much more determination. The faster they reached the top, the better. If it hit the underground with another strong tremor, it might damage something important and that something important might just be the thing holding everything together and while he, Hatsue, and that Dragon Doctor might survive it (so long as they weren't hurt during the burying), the humans would die.

Hatsue's worried thought process felt stifling and awfully pessimistic. He needed to think of a worst-case scenario plan, but out of everyone's voices, hers was the loudest.

"Stop thinking so much, I can't concentrate!" Naruto complained.

"Concentrate on what? Running? Oh yeah, 'cause it's so hard!"

"I'd like to see you run up these stairs!"

"Low blow, Uzumaki! Low blow!"

_"Aren't they supposed to be soul mates?" _a stern-looking scientist murmured to the mousy haired woman running beside him_. "They certainly don't sound like soul mates."_

"Hey, nobody's perfect—"

"Yeah," Naruto agreed.

"—except maybe me," Hatsue finished, earning disapproval from the gossipers up ahead. "What? I might be."

"I'm going to drop you and make you run on your own," Naruto said warningly.

Hatsue stayed quiet for the rest of the run.

As soon as they reached ground level, the barrage of earthquakes ceased immediately and everyone, except Hatsue, stood in a nicely decorated lobby huffing. Hatsue held both hands on her hips, beaming. "That was a great run, wasn't it?"

Everyone glared at her until the ambience turned awkward and the smile fell from her lips. The humans and the doctor headed out the entrance in search of their coworkers and in that instant, he'd had a thought. Nobody was watching them, they could run, but he didn't even think to propose it with Sasuke, Hinata, and Kiba still in the facility's possession.

He waited until the silver-haired doctor disappeared behind tinted doors before grabbing Hatsue for a searing kiss. Heat passed through them and he felt the familiar pull of Equilibrium, his link to her, his soul mate. He'd missed it. He'd missed her.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a second liplock that had his hands searching for a place to settle on her back.

"I remember everything," she told him between breaths, eyes fluttering open. "I know what you are, what I am, and what I can do. I remember everything." His eyes held hers, a solid deep green, and he could feel her heart pumping in desperation. "You need to go."

His eyebrows knitted with censure. "No," he stated firmly. "Not without you or Sasuke, or Hinata and Kiba. We need to go together or nobody goes at all!"

She disengaged him, pushing him towards the exit. "Go now!" she ordered, but he didn't budge. "I'll do anything just go now!"

"I'm staying," he stated. "That's it. Do this for me and I promise I'll get us all out of here."

She relented, closing her eyes as he pushed the dark hair behind her ear. He leaned down, sensing others approaching. "We'll be happy," he whispered, but the noise of the new group of mutants arriving drowned out his voice. Hatsue didn't hear and he wished she had, he had more to say.

"Come quietly," shouted the mutant at the front of the pack. "And no funny business."

"What is this the 80s?" Hatsue snapped at him, stomping past them. "Nobody says that anymore, grandpa."

Then eight Oni mutants ushered them into a courtyard, grand and spacious but enclosed by high walls and modern structures. The grass beneath his feet was damp and sprinkled with wildflowers. Off in one corner, he caught sight of a stone fountain, and lined against the walls were about half a dozen rowan trees that made his skin crawl. There were several potted plants sitting on the gravel pathway ready to be planted that gave his stomach a lurch.

Hatsue looked taken by the sight before her and she had turned to him intent on asking a question playing in her mind when one mutant pushed her forward with the butt of his gun. She snapped towards him, ready with a retort that might result in something disastrous when Naruto cut between them, glaring at the man, guiding her towards the open doorway on the opposite end of the courtyard. From there, they were separated and thrown into empty rooms in one pale hallway where they would be guarded by five Oni mutants to one demon.

Naruto paced about the squared room in impatience, taking note of the single surveillance camera to his left without calling attention to his knowledge of it there. It had been disguised enough to go unnoticed, but not enough for him to turn a blind eye towards it. He continued walking around, touching walls and checking for weaknesses in the structure to find everything perfectly reinforced with steel and dragon magic meant to sap the power out of imprisoned demons.

He scowled, picking up brainwaves and signaling out Sasuke's.

_Sasuke, it's me!_

**I know**, came Sasuke's cold response.

_Hold on, I need to connect with Hinata,_ he returned, leaving his conversation with Sasuke while searching the sea of Oni mutant brainwaves for Hinata's head. Getting into people's heads was a lot like opening doors, except you needed willpower to unlock it and turn the knob to do it. Connecting others into the same mental conversation required unlocking many doors and inviting a piece of everyone's conscious mind out into a room he created to support the exchange. This required having a focus point, which would be a person mentally capable of sustaining more than one person in their heads, and that usually took a lot of energy out of him.

However, it helped Hatsue would be his focus point because not only was she mentally stronger than everyone else, he could borrow from her power to sustain more than three people since they were soul mates. A big part of Equilibrium was power sharing. Demons in Equilibrium with another were much stronger than those that had not yet achieved it.

_Hinata!_

_**Naruto-kun, is that you?**_ Hinata sounded worried.

_Can you make a connection to Hatsue through me? We need to talk. All of us, even Kiba. Don't forget Kiba._

_**Ah, yes. I'll do that now.**_

Naruto turned Hatsue into his focus point and transmitted his first message to her. _Hatsue._

In the split moment of her silence, he put Sasuke through to the room and sensed Hinata pushing through to make her own connection with Kiba through him. It felt incredibly stuffy.

_'Don't you think they think we conspire enough already? Do you need to contact my brain now?' _she answered snippily.

**That namazu needs to be dealt with**, Sasuke said without preamble, his voice echoing through his mind to reach hers.

_'Sasuke, why are you in my head?'_

_I patched him through, _Naruto admitted.

_'You can't just patch people through without asking for permission.' _She paused. '_Hinata?'_

_**I'm happy you are doing okay, Hatsue-san**__, _came Hinata's tremulous voice.

_'Inuzuka?'_

_**'Yeah, I'm here, too,'**_ said Kiba. _**'Hey, Kikushita.'**_

Naruto fought the urge to grin as he finally took a seat in the center of the room. The facility didn't know what type of demon he was, so that'd become a subject of interest soon, but until then, they needed to talk about the namazu before it started moving in search of them. That would complicate things.

_'Naruto?' _Hatsue called testily.

_I patched everyone through,_ he said guiltily, _but Hinata helped, too._

_**'Way to throw her under the bus, asshole!'**_Kiba shouted in Hinata's defense.

_'I would never throw a bus at Hinata!'_

"Oh, for fuck's sake, it was a figure of speech!" came Hatsue's exasperated yell.

_**'How stupid are you? First the facility and now here?' **_continued Kiba.

_I didn't do anything in the facility!_

_**'If you would've stopped shouting, we wouldn't have been noticed!' **_Kiba accused.

_I wasn't shouting! I was trying to punch Sasuke for making a pass at Hatsue!_

**What was that?** called Sasuke, voice emerging from the swirl of others.

Somewhere in the cacophony of voices zipping through his head, he heard Hinata say something that went on unheard.

_You heard me, stupid Sasuke! I said I was going to beat you for making a pass at Hatsue!_

**I'd like to see you try it.**

_'Everyone needs to shut up. You're giving me a migraine!'_

_See what you did? You gave Hatsue a migraine!_

_'It's your fault, idiot! You're the one that patched everyone into my head.'_

_**We can't leave the namazu alone**__, _Hinata said._** He must be suffering.**_

_'It's because he is suffering that he's annoying,' _Hatsue revealed. _'He keeps trying to make a connection with me and I can't get him out. He frustrated and in pain.'_

_Hinata, you should patch him into the conversation!_

_**'Don't you dare!' **_

_'Naruto, don't!'_

Naruto scowled, arms folded over his chest. _How else are we going to know how to help him?_

**We are not trying to help him. We want to get rid of him,** Sasuke stated. **The faster way to do it is to call attention to it so a group of mutants gets sent down there to deal with it.**

_That's not fun at all._

He heard hard knocking drifting in from the direction of Hatsue's room, followed by the sound of the heavy door opening and her voice. "Has any one of you nimrods realized there's a giant catfish in the center of the earth literally shaking off wave after wave of earthquakes? Oh, of course you wouldn't, you're not real demons, you can't sense anything but your left and right ass cheeks."

**Hatsue. **Naruto could already see Sasuke running a hand down his face in utter disappointment. He was certain Sasuke did not mean that kind of attention.

_What are you doing, Hatsue?_

Panic welled in his stomach at the sound of other footsteps and more voices.

"What are you saying, Hatsue?" called Tsunade.

"There's a demon underground causing the earthquakes. He's been chasing you since back then," Hatsue revealed.

"You mean it was not Uzumaki?" questioned the lady doctor.

"No, he can't cause earthquakes."

Naruto folded his arms over his chest, thoroughly confused as to what Hatsue thought to accomplish by informing the doctor of the namazu underground. Did she have that sort of authority? _Well, it's not like I can't do it, I just didn't cause the tremors then._

_**'The only thing you can do is get us caught,'**_Kiba retorted.

**Shut up about it for a minute. Hatsue is up to something.**

_**Do you think they would send one of us?**_ asked Hinata.

While the conversation between Tsunade and Hatsue persisted, the one between them started up again.

**That would be the ideal**, answered Sasuke calmly, **but if they do send someone, it'll be someone they need information on…and that only leaves one option…**

And in the silence, Naruto knew he was the subject. _Even if they do send me, they won't know what I am. I can just kick the namazu's ass without going full demon._

_'That's because your powers don't work that way,' _came Hatsue's voice like a ripple on water. _'They're sending Sasuke.'_

The door farthest to his right opened with the wail of screeching metal, his ears twitched as they tuned into the voices. A mutant called to Sasuke and shortly after, the sound of his footfalls passing through the long decadent hallway disappeared. Everyone stayed silent in anticipation of his voice, but he said nothing, not even after he was escorted out the door and Hatsue was thrown back into her prison. Naruto felt the connection sever due to the distance and then leaned back in concentration to keep the others in tune.

_'People need to start treating me gently,' _Hatsue complained.

_**'You seem durable enough,' **_Kiba remarked.

_Take that back!_

_'You will regret speaking to me that way.'_

_**We shouldn't be fighting,**_ Hinata's voice was necessarily firm and it surprised them into silence. _**Sasuke-san is going to meet that namazu and we need to do something here.**_

Naruto tuned out of the conversation as new thoughts flooded his head, those emerging from the minds of the mutants guarding Hatsue's entrance and one of the scientists. This one he recognized from before, he heard more than his thoughts, he read his demon signature, more accurately this time: _mizuchi_—water dragon.

—_transfer subjects to Block C—_

_Hinata, _Naruto called. _Did you hear that?_

_**Yes, they're going to transfer us, **_she answered nervously.

_Hatsue, Kiba, Hinata, be careful around that doctor, he's a mizuchi_, he informed, but deep down inside he was certain he was not a pureblooded mizuchi or a mizuchi mutant. His body was a testament to the man's strange magic and it reminded him a bit about someone from the past…

_'Mizuchi? That's rare,' _said Hatsue in admiration. _'Maybe I should boss him around more? He has to listen to me.'_

_**He isn't human?**_

_**'Why is he working for them?'**_

Naruto wanted an answer to that as well, but he wasn't given the time to ponder it any further as his room's door opened and he was ushered out by the mutants guarding it. He was directed down the hallway, following close behind Hinata with Kiba behind him and Hatsue further in the back with that four-eyed doctor at the end guiding them to Block C.

He glimpsed at Hatsue over his shoulder and saw her staring straight ahead, ready to meet his gaze and he didn't like the expression on her face. She seemed too lost, too emotional. He attempted to go to her, thinking up ways to help remove the strange emotion from her face, but if she remembered everything then it made perfect sense.

A mutant shoved him forward and in retaliation, he reached up to grab the same arm that had done it, but he heard her voice emerge from the deep recesses of his mind, echoing softly into the quiet.

_'Don't,'_ she said and he didn't. He turned away and continued walking forward.

Block C was a high-ceiling steel room inside a dome-like structure he saw through the mizuchi's memory. It stood fortified by dragon magic that ate away at their life force leaving them with the exception of one who was unaffected by her own pull. Behind every wall, he sensed dragon magic, ancient and rare magic that had gone extinct long ago that surrounded the entire building in something like a force field using specifically placed devices behind the steel walls. Whoever created them must have pretended to uncover a way through the use of technology, but this was pure Otherworldly magic. It did not rely on any man made machine.

The effect on Hinata and Kiba had been immediate, instead of reading as kitsune and inugami, respectively, the two red completely human. He felt the connection he bridge to Hinata break apart, but he could rebuild it if he needed it.

Hatsue sidled up beside him. "Everyone is looking at us," she said, then turned to him, "At you. My blood is running through your system." She touched the inside of his wrist with her forefinger as if in wonder and the warmth abandoned him to rush into her body. "You must transform into my kind."

"It won't matter if I did," he said, the heat rushing back to him came with a bit of a sting. He scowled in response to the unsuspecting surge of pain. "I can change what I look like, but my demon signature stays the same. They'll know I'm like Hinata."

She jerked away and stared at him accusingly. "Ow."

He blinked. "What?"

"That hurt!"

"What did?"

With furrowed eyebrows, she responded, "Just then…" She trailed off, then turned away swiftly, moving along without another word.

"What happened?" demanded Naruto.

Hatsue walked straight to Hinata and Kiba. "Hey, you two, touch each other!"

Both whirled around, red in the face.

"What's wrong with you?" snapped Kiba.

She grabbed the two by the wrist and forced their hands together. "What do you feel?"

"Why are you so freaking strong in here?" complained Kiba, struggling against her.

"Are you okay, Hatsue-san?" asked Hinata, flinching in pain.

Naruto rushed up behind her and grabbed her around the waist. "Stop it!"

She dropped their wrists and allowed him to pull her into his chest, but her body remained tense and when Equilibrium came, it swept through his body like a thousand knives scraping against his bones. She writhed in pain and bit back a scream, but as the pain left him it rushed straight into her and her scream resonated up the high ceiling room.

His arms fell limp and she fell to the floor, scrambling as far from him as she could possibly get. He lifted his eyes to her and saw her visible skin burning red. He looked down to his arms and they were the same.

Hinata ran to Hatsue's side, she winced out from under her reach before realizing who it was touching her. The tension in Hatsue's body left her and she allowed Hinata to examine the red on her flesh.

Everything had been right minutes ago. He held her and kissed her and everything was right. Equilibrium brought them closer together, now it forced them apart. He stared at his hands and then back to her. _This can't be happening._

* * *

_Naruto slept thinking of Sakura so that she manifested in his dreams and in them, he kissed her until his lips bruised, but when he pulled away, another pair of eyes blinked up at him. Framed by thick dark lashes, the bright eyes smoldered and her peach tinted lips stayed parted as she waited in anticipation. Every day since he first lay eyes on her she appeared and every day since Sakura disappeared from his dreams and Hatsue appeared in her place, he crushed his mouth to hers and his body exploded in warmth in a way he had never before experienced. _

_He woke with his ears and tail out, huffing and drenched in cold sweat. A rod of light fell across his sheets as the door opened. He stuffed his tail under the pillow and folded his ears against the top of his yellow hair, snapping towards the entrance where Jiraiya, the white-haired hermit and his mentor, stood with a lazy smile._

_"Dreaming of the girl already?" asked Jiraiya._

_"No," he protested, attempting to hide his ears when a second tail appeared at the fleeting thought of her, drumming on the mattress. He grabbed it and sat on top of it, earning a laugh. "I was dreaming about Sakura-chan not the snob!"_

_"I can't protect you against your own soul mate, Naruto," Jiraiya explained, waving a hand that made his ears and tail disappear. "That girl is a bigger danger to you than you realize."_

_Naruto felt at ease again and scowled. "Sakura-chan is my soul mate, not her," he said in determination. "She doesn't even know what she is."_

_The man gave a hearty laugh and told him to get back in bed before shutting the door behind him while he stayed seated and fuming. The hermit was an Otherworld being, but he was not like him. He practiced sorcery and because of that magic, Naruto was allowed to live peacefully as a human without being discovered. The older man was rarely around; he spent only enough time to teach him what he needed to survive alone since he had no parents to rely on like half the other Otherworldly beings in the Human World. He lost them a long time ago and remembered nothing about them. The only information he had was that he was like his mother and that his father was like Jiraiya, not human or demon but in between._

_Naruto burrowed back under his covers and repeated Sakura's name, remembering her face framed by long pink hair and her smile, until he fell asleep a second time to a dream of Kikushita Hatsue. Her skin was hardened and scaled with a gold shimmer and her eyes were a vivid knowing green and he saw the universe in them, bright stars in infinite blackness. She was the one and the demon part of him knew it, but Naruto would only accept her over his dead body. He only wanted Sakura in his life and he would show his demon instinct that it wanted Sakura too, no matter what it took to accomplish it._

_Naruto opened his eyes to a brightness that reminded him of brilliant eyes and put him in a foul mood the rest of that morning. He went to school and glared at the back of Kikushita Hatsue's head like his life depended on it and she noticed it. He knew she noticed it because there was a great amount of tension developing in her shoulders and he didn't care that she knew. He wanted her to know so that she stayed as far away from him as possible. Haruno Sakura was his soul mate. He knew it from the moment he first saw her and no tenryū—_heavenly dragon—_would make the difference. He didn't care how rare and special her extinct race was. _

_Sasuke was a tenryū too, so why couldn't they get hitched instead?_

_Struck by the brilliance of his idea, Naruto was quick to put it in motion in the instant it took for him to write a short, demanding note to Sasuke and toss it to him. _

_The black-haired boy glared at him as he unfurled the piece of paper, looking down without his expression changing. He wrote on it and threw it straight into Naruto's face. _

_Naruto bit back a curse and unfolded it, reading just below his own writing. _

**Demon-marry the new girl. You're alike. And you have a lot in common.**

She is yours.

_He furiously wrote a reply._

**I don't want her. Besides, you can give birth to more tenryū and become a thriving race of life-snatching demons together for the rest of eternity. It'll be perfect.**

_Sasuke responded by drawing an arrow to his previous answer._

**I DON'T WANT HER.**

_The next time Naruto launched the note at Sasuke he slapped it out of its trajectory and it sailed straight into the back of Kikushita Hatsue's head. She turned slowly, catching him red-handed and grabbed the piece of crumbled paper. She tossed it into the waste bin on the way out of class, glaring at him in the process. He had felt relieved she had not read it._

_Naruto stalked Sasuke afterschool, persistent on the subject. "Why not?" he demanded for the umpteenth time._

_Sasuke ignored him the entire way, so Naruto returned home in a worse mood that greeted his mentor with a furious glare. "Don't you have a thing that can break up Equilibrium bonds?"_

_"Why do you want to break a bond that hasn't been formed yet?" asked Jiraiya._

_"Can you break it?"_

_"Even the unbreakable has a weakness," he replied at ease. "Think on it. Who is the one person you cannot share a bond with?"_

* * *

Naruto walked around in circles with Hatsue at the center digging deep through his memories to uncover a reason as to why the two had suddenly grown allergic to one another. He hated it. For the first time since the facility took her in, he had been in and out of her life, continuously becoming the forgotten memory and he hated it. He hated that no matter how hard he tried to pretend she did not exist while there were other women in his life or in his bed, his bond to her was supposed to be the strongest, but it was never strong enough to keep her safe—to keep them together as Equilibrium entailed. He wanted forever. They barely accumulated nine months of time together. Finding her again today was supposed to be different. The facility thought they created a mutant out of him and now there was no reason to keep them apart.

"It's my blood," Hatsue voiced, forcing him to a halt. "My blood is in you. I can't be bonded to myself, so it is rejecting me. You are rejecting me."

He sat down with her. "What do I do?"

"Nothing," she said. "My blood is keeping you safe. They think you're a mutant, so it's better that way."

"I don't care," he retorted. "I don't care if they know what I am!"

Hatsue hovered her hand over his, hesitating still. "They would make you do terrible things if you were any other kind of demon." She glanced at Hinata and Kiba in emphasis. "You don't want to do those things. The drugs they use here are especially made to render us useless and there are others that can make us crazed." She paused, looking back at him. "They won't give up on me and Sasuke. They aren't done with us."

"I'm your soul mate!" he snapped.

"They don't care. Pureblood is pureblood and you are a mutant," she said harshly.

"But they've already figure out a way to create mutants. I've seen them do it."

"Mutants aren't as strong as us. If I were to have a child and they were to condition it into becoming this unstoppable being—they won't stop. They won't stop until they have one of mine."

Naruto jumped onto his feet in the spur of the moment and stomped straight to the center of the room, looking up to find every camera staring down at them. Hatsue rushed up to catch up to him, understanding through his emotions that he was about to do something drastic.

"Hey! Four Eyes! Snake guy and the old lady!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. Hatsue grabbed him and he felt a jolt of pain. "I wasn't human from the start! I'm a kitsune like Hinata—"

"Naruto-kun don't."

"Oi, idiot stop!"

"Naruto, please!"

Their voices overlapped and fell to deaf ears. "I'm higher tier like Hatsue and Sasuke only for kitsune. I have more tails! Nine of them! Each one gives me a different power!" he continued, despite the protests and pain. "I'm the last one alive!"

"**Fascinating.**" A chilling voice rang through the intercom system. "**A nine-tailed fox, is it?**"

In the quiet they waited.

"**What do you hope to accomplish with this?**" asked the calmer voice of the female doctor. "**How do we not know this is a bluff? You rose from the dead like many others.**"

"I would've risen whether or not you experimented on me, but all the junk you put in me is being a bother, so I'm going to need someone to remove it and all the blood in my system until there is nothing left," he said quickly. "Hatsue is mine. She won't be used to become a demon baby factory."

"What are you doing?" Hatsue demanded, shaking his arm.

"Saving you," he replied. "Saving you from them."

"**Show us.**" The voice belonged to the dragon doctor. "**Show us what you are.**"

Naruto drew away from Hatsue. One by one, he dissolved every bit of sorcery attached to his body and with every weight lifted off his shoulder, he begun to feel the surge of demon power rushing through his veins mingling with Hatsue's tenryū blood. His mouth ached as his canines grew and his body hunched forward, bones snapping in the process as he begun to grow larger in size and the power grew visible around him like a coat. The ground broke beneath him and long cracks ran up and down the walls. Even the dragon magic running through the walls could not absorb this much power at once without breaking.

—_a true rarity_—

—_this power will destroy the entire facility; we need to stop him_—

—_wonderful_—

Only a few more spells remained before he returned to his true form, but he felt the stab of something on his side and the power surging through his body and the facility went out like a light. In the blink of an eye, he was once again standing in the center of the room in human form and the tiny jab he felt, he noticed, had been Hatsue's hand, which had stolen everything bit of that energy. Her entire left arm glistened with white, golden-specked scales that ran all the way to the side of her face, where they had turned her vivid green eye a deep golden with a slit down the middle. Her palm was burning red.

She took life force to extend her life, but tenryū were more specifically hated for stealing vast amounts of energy to convert into life. She absorbed too much at once, which normally would give her a large boost of power except this was his energy and it could only kill her.

He panicked, catching her when she fell unconscious, and gently tapped the side of her face in an attempt to wake her. _Damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit, you're not supposed to take from me! _"Hatsue!" he called. "Wake up!" He hoisted her up into his arms and started for the door, ignoring the pain inside him, shouting up to the others. "We need mutants like her that can take energy! She needs to be drained of everything!"

The metal doors swished open and she was taken from his aching arms, but he was left inside unable to follow. As Kabuto rushed by he caught a fleeting thought.

—_It is best she lives._—

He didn't like Kabuto's interest in letting her live, but he didn't question it. She needed to be drained of all that energy before it killed her.

"What the hell happened?" asked Kiba. "She looked fine."

"There's a reason demons like me existed past the tenryū," said Naruto, teeth clenched. "We were immune to their ability to take and if they ever had the opportunity to take our immunity turned to poison in their system."

"What does that mean for the mutants?" asked Kiba, looking to Hinata for answers.

"Hatsue-san is like Naruto-kun," Hinata started hesitantly. "Tenryū mutants will be able to take from her, but she is immune…and that immunity will turn into poison inside them."

Naruto felt conflicted. It came down to deciding between Hatsue's life or the tenryū mutants' lives and she took priority. Instinctively. That did not mean he approved of the methods used to save her. He had only wished Sasuke were around because it wouldn't affect him the same, but he wasn't an option and the mutants were. Hatsue would live.

He wanted to be with her.

* * *

**( **_Part II _**)**

* * *

_"I want to get rid of her," Naruto decided the evening after a particularly bad encounter with his soul mate. _

_Since she had transferred into his school, they had had an unspoken agreement to avoid all form of contact and they had honored it until she had done the impossible. She had placed second on their midterms, a spot specifically reserved for Sakura (because Sasuke had always managed top marks year by year) who had joked about liking how her name looked under Sasuke's and it had made her happy, but Hatsue had ruined it all by beating her out that year. It probably would not have bothered him as much as it did if he had not heard her goading about it, further ruining Sakura's day and quite frankly, without Sakura being in the center of it all, he had grown tired of Hatsue._

_She was obviously unhappy at school and she obviously didn't care to make friends. She always had the option of leaving back to the rich school where she came from and stop ruining everyone else's lives here (specifically his), but she never took it. It was like she enjoyed torturing everyone with her presence._

_Jiraiya looked up from his laptop screen, stilling his typing. "What?"_

_"I want to get rid of her," Naruto repeated. He had previously lived fifteen years without Hatsue in his life, he was certain he could live the rest of eternity without her. "You mentioned there was a way to get rid of her." The white-haired man frowned. "Don't make that face; you're the one that said she was dangerous!"_

_"She was until I saw she hadn't matured into her abilities," he said._

_"I'm the one that told you she didn't know what she was! Anyways, why should I be with an Unwanted?" he complained._

_"Why are you so worried?" Jiraiya questioned, unfazed. "She might be your soul mate, but you might not be hers. So, get over yourself."_

_"I bet she secretly knows," Naruto grumbled, ignoring his comment._

_Jiraiya sighed, shook his head, and went back to work._

_"She probably likes me." He huffed, arms folded over his chest. "Good! And too bad for her because I have Sakura-chan!"_

_"Except she's in love with the Uchiha boy," Jiraiya commented, lifting his eyes to him, eyebrow quirked, "and where in that conversation did you pick up that the tenryū girl likes you?"_

_"I'm obviously her soul mate. She has to like me."_

_"Equilibrium links two individuals together to breed," Jiraiya explained. "It is simply a matter of what demon or human compliments you better in that aspect. Growing stronger through it is a bonus. You don't have to be in love with your soul mate and they don't need to be in love with you. You can keep your Sakura-chan and she can be with another, but the consequence of it all is that neither one of you will be able to have children or grow any stronger. For that reason alone, others have thought Equilibrium to be nature's way of pinpointing you to the person that is right for you."_

_Naruto listened to half of that. "So is there a way to get rid of her before we Equilibrium?"_

_"I already told you there's always a way to break the unbreakable," Jiraiya said, as if speaking from experience, "but it's never pretty and you always regret it."_

* * *

"Apparently, we're receiving a new in-patient," commented a physician at the opposite end of the room. "A woman. They don't know what she is only that she isn't human."

"Isn't there a new doctor coming in too?" asked the mutant nurse. "I heard this one's another of Tsunade-sensei's students."

Distant footsteps rang behind from the hallway connected to the medical room where new exchanges began between the lady doctor and who he assumed would be the new doctor.

"Oh, that must be the new doctor," said the physician. "She's younger than I thought."

"Hmm, I wonder if she'll last with people like Kikushita and Uchiha," the mutant nurse said. "Not to mention the demon over there seems like he'll be more trouble than both life-snatchers combined."

Naruto tuned out the conversation as he rested his head over Hatsue's bed. He had been allowed an hour to see her and it had gone by without her waking. He overheard the panicked wails of the tenryū mutants that had unknowingly taken poison into their bodies seconds before their insides deteriorated and they turned to ash. He feigned ignorance when asked if he had known it would happen and he had waited afterward for the head doctor or scientist to allow him to see Hatsue. He had faced both scrutiny and interest as he walked down the pale halls in search of the medical room flanked by a horde of Oni mutants that would have been surprised to know he could do nothing to them because of the wonky experiments the mizuchi performed on him. He could bite them, but what good would that do?

Naruto listened to his stomach growl in protest. He slumped forward, feeling completely drained. "I'm so hungry!"

Something hard landed atop his head. "You'd be happy to know the cafeteria opens in an hour."

He turned and the sight of Haruno Sakura in full doctor garb upset him as he rubbed the back of his head after she smacked him with her clipboard. "Wha—? You're the new doctor here?"

She frowned, her arms folded over the clipboard pressed against her chest. Her eyes wandered over to Hatsue's unconscious form, a wary expression came over her and in that moment, he wished he could read emotions like Hatsue. "It hasn't been easy to find a good residency," she admitted. "I only took this because it was a recommendation from Tsunade-sensei. I didn't think it would be at the actual facility…and it pays well."

He didn't ask why that mattered. "Aren't you a supposed to be geneticist?"

"A geneticist can be a medical doctor," she grumbled. She quickly shook her head, pressing her fingers to her left temple. "Anyways, are you here visiting? I didn't think the facility was open to visitors…what with it being on this island so far away."

"I'm in the process of becoming an in-patient," he said in answer, looking up to her. She looked horrified, but not so much that it seemed to be because he revealed he was a demon. There seemed to be an underlying reason. "Sorry about keeping it a secret."

She snapped out of it quickly, swallowing the emotion and turned away. "You wouldn't be the first."

"What? You mean Sasuke?" he asked incredulously.

"I'm not talking about Sasuke-kun," she said defensively.

"Well, I know you're not talking about Hatsue."

"Did you hear about the new in-patient?"

"Yeah, what about the new in-patient?"

"It's Ino."

"Sakura." The lady doctor stood at the entrance of the room. "There's a meeting in twenty minutes. Come, I'll take you there."

Sakura looked to him one last time. "I should be going," she said, starting to leave.

Naruto grabbed her by the arm and was startled by what ensued. He felt himself steal the heat from her until she seemed to have been made of ice and he dropped her arm immediately.

She stared at him oddly, almost as if she had sensed something was wrong, but she was a hundred percent human and she wouldn't feel any of this.

"Is something wrong?"

"You should hear Ino out," he told her. "She probably doesn't know what she is or that she was anything to begin with. She could have been human for these past twenty-eight years, just like Hatsue and Sasuke when we were in school." He moved forward, lowering his voice to a whisper. "Be careful around the scientist guy that looks like a snake and that four-eyed doctor."

Sakura nodded, turning away quickly to meet the doctor.

Naruto stared at Hatsue and reached for her hand, clasping it slowly and hesitantly curling his fingers underneath her palm. He sensed a tug from her, but it was weak—a brittle string trembling before it snapped in two. He removed his hand from hers as he felt his skin start to itch.

It would only be a matter of time before it happened. He had a feeling it had to do with the experiments because something inside him changed. He knew it from the start, but he had been in a rush to find Hatsue that he ignored it.

_"You are rejecting me."_

He wanted to think they were only allergic to one another, not that the bond was so irreparably broken that he would be in Equilibrium with Sakura if they continued making contact. Hatsue must have known when she made that awful comment and she didn't want to do anything about it. Now she didn't have a choice.

"Hey, Hatsue, are you hungry?" he asked quietly. "I'm sure you are, you haven't eaten in a while. Well, you did have all that energy so you might be a little full." He huffed. "God, it's like talking to a corpse with you sometimes."

"You'll regret that when I am a corpse."

Naruto jolted.

Hatsue shifted uncomfortably. "You're disturbingly poisonous."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm top notch," she answered. "How long have I been out?"

He was glad to see she woke up in good spirits. "Almost three hours."

"Is Sasuke back?"

"No. Not yet. He should be soon. I don't sense the namazu anymore. Do you?"

She closed her eyes drowsily. "I can't now."

"Uzumaki," called Kabuto from the door.

"Ignore him," Hatsue advised.

He felt tempted to do as she advised, but he glimpsed in the mizuchi's direction as he approached her bedside.

"It's is good you are doing better, Hatsue," Kabuto said.

"I like how optimistic you are today, Yakushi-sensei," she replied, hiking the blankets up to her shoulder after twisting around so her back was to them. "Bye Uzumaki."

Naruto left his seat. "See you, Kikushita."

Kabuto ushered him out of the room, but he stole one final glance at Hatsue.

"There's been word from Uchiha Sasuke," Kabuto began. "The facility is now in possession of a namazu."

"You should start working on constructing a backup to your backup."

The mizuchi cracked a smile. "That sounds like something Kikushita would say."

"Well I had to learn it somewhere."

Naruto underwent what he assumed were the usual tests a demon and mutant experienced upon entering a facility, but they were mostly interested in his blood even though it couldn't be harvested while mixed with Hatsue's. He advised them against it, but the doctor assigned to him did not seem to care for warnings.

Once the overdrawn, tiring process concluded he was returned to Block C with Hinata and Kiba, only Sasuke had returned and he seemed to be staring off into space. They would spend the night in this room while others were prepared for them, though it had not yet been decided how everyone would be separated, he had an idea, he only hoped it was wrong and that they were split up by gender.

"Hey, Sasuke," he called.

Sasuke snapped out of his reverie and turned. "What?"

If he had been wounded in his short mission underground, he had already healed.

"I heard Ino is here."

He bristled.

"I had the exact same reaction," Naruto grumbled. "Sakura is here too. That fertility doctor recommended her for a residency."

That information further upset him.

"Did you hear about Hatsue? Well, she's doing better now."

"How many mutants died?" asked Sasuke tersely.

"Six and a half."

"And a half?"

Naruto shrugged. "Coma."

"Is Hatsue recovered?"

"Yeah, she'll be fine. Unless you want to see for yourself."

Sasuke walked past him to do that, making the formal request by ordering the mutant at the door to escort him out. Naruto watched on flabbergasted, half expecting the Oni mutant to send him back from where he came, but the exact opposite happened. He opened the doors for him and escorted him out as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

He scratched the back of his neck. "Aren't you supposed to be a prisoner here?"

Kiba and Hinata approached him, both casting a look in the direction of the door in inquiry.

"Sasuke went to see Hatsue," he said in explanation.

"Isn't it weird that he looks for Hatsue so much?" asked Kiba, almost in complaint.

"Eh? Why?" he asked innocently, although someone did need to remind him to punch Sasuke after that stint in the previous facility. Right mind or not, that was his mate he endangered and he wouldn't feel right until he did something about it. "He just wanted to make sure the mutants didn't mess up."

Kiba huffed, folding his arms over his chest. "Did you hear about the new in-patients? A namazu and an unknown."

Naruto blinked. "Ah, I forgot to ask Sasuke about the namazu. I wonder what his name is," he said, then remembered Sakura and Ino. "Sakura-chan took a residency here."

"What? Sakura? Really?"

He nodded. "Yeah and the other in-patient is Ino."

The silence between them was brief.

"What?" snapped Kiba. "Ino is here!"

_'But Ino was protected,'_ said Hinata, transmuting through their heads. _'Ino was always protected. I never thought something like this would happen to her of all people. Her kind is especially protective of their young and this is—this is horrible.'_

_Worse if they find out what Ino is, _Naruto answered, fiddling with the sleeves of the standard issue gray sweater he wore and surveyed the room.

**Stop being so obvious! **Kiba shouted, snapping his fingers in front of him.

Naruto scratched his arm. "These are itchy sweaters."

"They're not that bad."

He stared down the front of the dull color. "Don't they have another color other than gray?"

_'I think it's best that we protect Ino so that they don't discover what she is.'_

_She doesn't even know what she is. _Naruto paused. _Well…she might know what she is._

**If she does, she would know how to protect herself. Where are her parents anyway? **Kiba asked.

_'The last time I spoke to Ino, she mentioned they went on a job somewhere far,' _Hinata answered._ 'I think they might have gone to the Otherworld.'_

_What for? Nobody goes there, it's near inhabitable._

_'My family went there as well,' _Hinata confessed. _'Kiba's mother as well…'_

_Did something happen? _Naruto hated being in the dark, but he probably had been for the past ten years trying to find a way to get Hatsue and Sasuke out of the facility and the old hermit hadn't been around in a little over eleven years to keep him updated on demon affairs.

The two nodded in affirmation.

_What happened?_

_'I doubt you haven't sensed it, but the seam between the worlds has been a little—'_

**Wonky. Every year since ten years ago, it has been like that and Hinata thinks that it's the reason Hatsue and Sasuke came into their powers so early.**

It was true. Jiraiya once told him that tenryū weren't tenryū until they reached a certain level of maturity that happened sometime during their mid to late twenties; sometimes it was the early thirties for males. Sasuke developed his power to see before graduating middle school, whereas Hatsue fully awoke to her arsenal of capabilities at eighteen, which caused a strain that woke several Oni mutants that had no idea what they were. Everything in that was done freely in the Otherworld changed in the human world, coming into powers became something of an inheritance that one didn't know of until they reached a certain age, like opening doors and they continued opening as they grew older.

_Does anyone know anything?_

_'We were captured before any information reached us.'_

**It will be several months before our families notice we are gone…**

_We can't worry about the seam now. We need to get out of here before they start experimenting on us like they have on Hatsue and Sasuke._

**This room is covered in tenryū blood. The entire facility is covered in it. We can't move if we don't have our power.**

_'But we have Ino now.'_

Naruto walked away from them to find a seat to make it seem less suspicious to the guards watching them.

**We also have Kikushita and Sasuke.**

_We don't. Sasuke's told me they have a specially made drug to suppress their strength to the point that they can be controlled by the Oni mutants._

Naruto looked on to the entrance, catching drift of someone's worried thoughts and stood up when the doors opened and Ino was shoved inside. Her hair sat a pale mess down her shoulders and the skin of her neck was badly bruised. She stumbled forward startled and jerked her arm out of the mutant that tried to shove her inside.

Ino surveyed the room, surprised to see them all, as the doors slammed shut. She jolted, looking over her shoulder one last time before returning her eyes to their silent stares.

_'Don't use your power here.'_

Ino made eye contact with Hinata. _**'What is happening? Why are you three here?'**_

**That idiot over there got us caught.**

_You got yourself caught! _Naruto protested. _I died for a while._

_'We tried to rescue Hatsue-san and Sasuke-san,' _Hinata explained, before going onto tell the story of their capture.

Sasuke did not return to Block C. The namazu everyone had been so worried about didn't even make an appearance in what remained of the day and no matter how many times he tried it, he could not sense him in the vicinity, but that might have been because the walls were ebbing away at his senses. Hinata was suffering from a similar reaction to the tenryū blood and Kiba's sense of smell had gone dull. Ino didn't dare try her own methods after they warned her against revealing what she was.

They slept in that same room once darkness fell, but it was easier to say they tried to do so on the hard floors with the vents pumping out freezing air that further weakened them. Naruto felt the extreme measure had been taken because of him and Ino would be the one to suffer the most from it, specifically because she was more like a human than the rest of them. Despite being immortal, she could die from this, so all the thin, scratchy blankets given to them were piled atop her shivering form.

"You should look into becoming a bear," Naruto told her in the middle of the night.

"Shut up."

"It was just a suggestion."

"Then keep it to yourself next time."

Naruto felt he only slept an instant the following morning when he and the others were ushered into a large cafeteria. Sasuke and Hatsue were already inside, seated and picking at the food on their trays.

Naruto took his tray of food and found a sat down next to Hatsue. Kiba, Hinata, and Ino joined them as well.

"Don't eat anything that isn't packaged," Sasuke told Ino.

She nodded, staring down at her tray. "That leaves me no options."

"Welcome to my world, Yamanaka," Hatsue commented.

"Where's the namazu?" asked Naruto.

"In the underground facility," Sasuke answered.

Sasuke picked at his Jell-O with disinterest until Hatsue took it from him, stabbing into it with her spoon to eat. He looked particularly tense.

"Oh, that's because Ino is here," Hatsue said in answer, staring directly at Naruto.

Everyone turned to her. Nobody had said a thing.

Naruto blinked. "What?"

"What about me?" asked Ino.

"You don't want to know if you don't already know," Hatsue replied with a cryptic smile.

She read emotions so well it was as if she were reading someone's thoughts. Naruto figured she noticed how he had seen Sasuke being tenser than usual and gave him an answer he should probably take with him to the grave, judging by the intense glare he was receiving from the dark-haired man.

_I won't tell anyone so stop glaring at me! _He communicated to him mentally.

**Don't even think it. Hatsue can sense the stupid oozing from your pours.**

_What did you say?_

**Want me to put it in writing?**

"Whoa, whoa," Hatsue began, patting the table surface in front of the two of them. "The amount of negativity radiating from Point A to Point B is really killing my appetite and I really want to enjoy this Jell-O."

"Sasuke started it," Naruto grumbled.

"Control your stupid fox," Sasuke said, leaving his seat with his tray in hand.

Naruto got to his feet, but Hatsue forced him back down, which sent a shock of pain through them that pulled them apart immediately. Sasuke left the cafeteria.

"What crawled up his ass and died?" Naruto complained.

"His brother is visiting the facility," Hatsue answered. "He heard this morning."

That explained everything.

"Hatsue, Naruto," Ino called, drawing their attention to them. "Is there a reason you two are in Imbalance?"

"Funny story, Ino-chan, Naruto was captured and experimented on to the point that the scientist thought they brought him back to life as a life-snatching mutant," Hatsue said with a strange laugh. "So he has my blood in his veins and you know how I can't Equilibrium with myself. Do you happen to know something?"

"I know he's on the market in search of a new mate…" Ino paused, having a good look at Naruto, which made him nervously avoid eye contact, "unless you already found one."

Hatsue turned to him slowly, having not expected that response. "What?"

"Your blood adjusted to his body and now it is searching for its soul mate, but I think he already found her." Ino reached out for Hatsue, touching her arm. "If you can extract your essence from the blood, things should go smoothly, well, if he doesn't end up reaching Equilibrium with your new love rival."

"Love rival?" Naruto blurted.

"I don't have a love rival."

"Well, it'd be more accurate to say that your own soul mate is your own rival in your ex-soul mate's heart," Ino corrected, earning a disgruntled look from everyone at the table. "What it means is that whoever Naruto's new soul mate is would be Hatsue's soul mate under different circumstances…like let's say, if she were male."

"You mean Sakura would be Hatsue's soul mate?" Naruto spat, only to clasp his hand over his mouth in alarm.

Hatsue stood abruptly, grabbed her tray, and started for the door without another word. Nobody spoke again until Naruto was certain she was out of earshot.

"Didn't you always want Sakura to be your soul mate?" Ino mused. "Well, now she is."

.

.

.

**(** ..._to be continued..._ **)**


End file.
